Design and Control of Warehousing

Design and Control of Warehouse Order Picking: a literature review

René de Koster, Tho Le-Duc and Kees Jan Roodbergen

ERIM REPORT SERIES RESEARCH IN MANAGEMENT

ERIM Report Series reference number Publication Number of pages Persistent paper URL Email address corresponding author Address rkoster@rsm.nl Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) RSM Erasmus University / Erasmus School of Economics Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam P.O.Box 1738 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands Phone: + 31 10 408 1182 Fax: + 31 10 408 9640 Email: info@erim.eur.nl Internet: www.erim.eur.nl ERS-2006-005-LIS January 2006 30

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ERASMUS RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT REPORT SERIES RESEARCH IN MANAGEMENT ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

Abstract Order picking has long been identified as the most labour-intensive and costly activity for almost every warehouse; the cost of order picking is estimated to be as much as 55% of the total warehouse operating expense. Any underperformance in order picking can lead to unsatisfactory service and high operational cost for its warehouse, and consequently for the whole supply chain. In order to operate efficiently, the orderpicking process needs to be robustly designed and optimally controlled. This paper gives a literature overview on typical decision problems in design and control of manual order-picking processes. We focus on optimal (internal) layout design, storage assignment methods, routing methods, order batching and zoning. The research in this area has grown rapidly recently. Still, combinations of the above areas have hardly been explored. Order-picking system developments in practice lead to promising new research directions. Free Keywords Availability Order picking, Warehouse Management, Logistics The ERIM Report Series is distributed through the following platforms: Academic Repository at Erasmus University (DEAR), DEAR...