Improving Order Picking Efficiency with the Use of Cross Aisles and Storage Policies

Charles G Petersen,Gerald R Aase

doi:10.4236/ojbm.2017.51009

Charles G Petersen, Gerald R Aase

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2017.51009

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Abstract

Order picking operations need to efficiently process orders in today’s competitive environment. Previous research generally assumed on even placement of the cross aisles. This research examines the placement of cross aisles in order picking operations and its effect on various storage policies. While previous research has primarily examined cross aisles and storage policies separately, this research looks at them simultaneously. The results showed no difference between even and uneven placement of cross aisles and that within-aisle storage is better than across-aisle and random storage. The results also showed that within-aisle storage provides greater travel distance savings than the use of cross aisles.

Highlights

Order picking is a process of retrieving items or stock-keeping units (SKU) from warehouse storage locations to satisfy customer orders and this process plays an important part in reducing warehousing and supply chain costs
This paper evaluated cross aisle placement in a manual warehouse with class-based storage
The results show that even and uneven cross aisle placement does not statistically differ and that the addition of cross aisles does significantly reduce picker travel as has been shown in previous research

Summary

Introduction

Order picking is a process of retrieving items or stock-keeping units (SKU) from warehouse storage locations to satisfy customer orders and this process plays an important part in reducing warehousing and supply chain costs. Order picking constitutes 50% 75% of the total operating costs for a typical warehouse [1] [2]. Today’s warehouse managers are under a lot of pressures due to the global competition and supply chain integration initiatives to decrease order picking time in order to increase the throughput rate and lower operating costs of their operations [3]. Previous order picking research generally focused on one of four main operating policies to improve the performance of the system: picking, routing, storage, and layout. Picking policies involve assigning items or orders to picking tours and include strict-order, batching, and zoning. Storage policies assign SKUs to storage locations.

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