Tabu Search Heuristics for the Order Batching Problem in Manual Order Picking Systems

Sebastian Henn () and Gerhard Wäscher ()
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Sebastian Henn: Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
Gerhard Wäscher: Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

No 100007, FEMM Working Papers from Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management

Abstract: In manual order picking systems, order pickers walk or ride through a distribution warehouse in order to collect items requested by (internal or external) customers. In order to perform these operations efficiently, it is usually required that customer orders are combined into (more substantial) picking orders of limited size. The Order Batching Problem considered in this paper deals with the question of how a given set of customer orders should be combined such that the total length of all tours necessary to collect all items is minimized. For the solution of this problem the authors suggest two approaches based on the tabu search principle. The first one is a straightforward classic Tabu Search algorithm (TS), the second one is the Attribute-Based Hill Climber (ABHC). In a series of extensive numerical experiments, the newly developed approaches are benchmarked against different solution methods from literature. It is demonstrated that the proposed methods are superior to existing methods and provide solutions which may allow for operating distribution warehouses significantly more efficiently.

Keywords: Logistics; Warehouse Management; Order Batching; Tabu Search; Attribute-Based Hill Climber (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2010-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-ore
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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