Warehouse Operations Simulation: A case study of onpoint E-commerce Start-up

Abstract

The warehouse design process is a consolidation of correlative decisions with many possible varieties in design segments. In this study, ARENA simulation models for warehouse processes are presented and discussed. By using the design components such as warehouse layout and resources, a simulation model is built to simulate warehouse daily activities. Moreover, the presented approach captures the probabilistic nature of all the key warehouse functions of receiving, unloading, put away, storage, fulfillment and picking and dispatching; and evaluates the performance of the studied designs using the cycle time for a stock keeping unit in the warehouse. Based on the analysis of the simulation results, some alternative improvements are suggested, which improve the warehouse performance. The study has also recommended some future research and development. Keywords: warehouse, simulation, layout, warehouse performance, cycle time.