Abstract
The general assignment problem is a classical NP-hard (non-deterministic polynomial-time) problem. In a warehouse, the constraints on the equipment and the characteristics of consecutive processes make it even more complicated. To overcome the difficulty in calculating the benefit of an assignment and in finding the optimal assignment plan, a simulation-based optimization method is introduced. We first built a simulation model of the warehouse with the object-oriented discrete-event simulation (O2DES) framework, and then implemented a random neighborhood search method utilizing the simulation output. With this method, the throughput and service level of the warehouse can be improved, while keeping the number of workers constant. Numerical results with real data demonstrate the reduction of discrepancy between inbound and outbound service level performance. With a less than 10% reduction in inbound service level, we can achieve an over 30% increase in outbound service level. The proposed decision support tool assists the warehouse manager in dealing with warehouse worker allocation problem under conditions of random daily workload.
Highlights
Workforce planning has been reported to be a persistent problem for a variety of process-centered industries [1]
In a set of experiments, we tested different values of λ for inbound and outbound service levels, with the input data sampled from different months of years 2018 and 2019
Since the workload may vary on a daily basis, it is important for the warehouse planner to have a decision support tool that can optimally assign workers to different activities
Summary
Workforce planning has been reported to be a persistent problem for a variety of process-centered industries [1]. These include healthcare operations—in particular, emergency departments, service industries, and warehouse management—whose performances are dependent on swift and even flows of resources and customers [2,3,4]. The productivity of any process increases with the speed at which the materials (or information) flow through the process [5]. This indicates the importance of workforce planning for improving productivity. A sequence of multiple processes is performed, starting from shipment arrivals and ending in shipment releases
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