Type of Publication: Article in Journal

Which Items Should be Stored Together? A Basic Partition Problem to Assign Storage Space in Group-Based Storage Systems

Author(s):

Kress, D.; Boysen, N.; Pesch, E.

Title of Journal:

IISE Transactions

Volume (Publication Date):

49 (2017)

Number of Issue:

1

pages:

13-30

Language:

Englisch

Keywords:

Warehousing, storage assignment, partitioning, ejection chain

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

doi:10.1080/0740817X.2016.1213469

Fulltext:

Which Items Should be Stored Together? A Basic Partition Problem to Assign Storage Space in Group-Based Storage Systems (1.09 MB)

Citation:

Download BibTeX

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.