Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering (산업경영시스템학회지)

Society of Korea Industrial and System Engineering (한국산업경영시스템학회)
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Comparative Analysis of Operation Policies for a Zone Picking System

구역 피킹 시스템 운영 방안 비교 분석

  • Mi Lim Lee (School of Business Administration, Hongik University)
  • Received : 2024.06.04
  • Accepted : 2024.06.18
  • Published : 2024.06.30
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Abstract

By the recent fast growth of e-commerce markets, it has been stimulated to study order picking systems to improve their efficiency in distribution centers. Many companies and researchers have been developed various types of order picking systems and pursued the corresponding optimal operation policies. However, the performances of the systems with the optimal policies often depend on the structures of the centers and the operation environments. Based on a simulation model that mimics a unique zone picking system operated by a real company in the Republic of Korea, this study compares several operation policies and finds the most appropriate order selection rule and worker assignment policy for the system. Under all scenarios considered in this study, simulation results show that it is recommendable to assign more efficient workers to the zones with heavier workload. It also shows that selecting the order with the maximum number of non-repeatedly visited zones from the order list provides the most consistent and stable performances with respect to flow time, makespan, and utilization of the system even under the scenario with the breakdown zones. On the other hand, selecting the order with the minimum ratio of penalty to the number of zones performs the worst in all scenarios considered.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was partially supported by 2021 Hongik University Research Fund.

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