Which items should be stored together? A basic partition problem to assign storage space in group-based storage systems
Publication date
2016-10-17
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
University of Siegen
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Series or journal
IISE Transactions
ISSN
Periodical volume
49
Periodical issue
1
First page
13
Last page
30
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
Nein
Language
English
Keyword
Warehousing
Storage assignment
Partitioning
Ejection chain
Abstract
We consider a basic partition problem that subdivides Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) into disjoint subsets, such that the minimum number of groups has to be accessed when retrieving a given order set under a pick-by-order policy. We formalize this SKU partition problem and show its applicability in a wide range of storage systems that are based on separating their storage space into groups of SKUs stored in separate areas; examples are carousel racks and mobile shelves. We analyze the computational complexity and propose two mathematical models for the problem under consideration. Furthermore, we present an ejection chain heuristic and a branch and bound procedure. We analyze these algorithms and the mathematical models in computational tests.
Version
Published version
Access right on openHSU
Metadata only access