E-Fulfilment Strategies For Food Products: Mixed Integer Linear Programming Models To Support Order Picking And Last-Mile Delivery

Abstract

E-fulfillment, which refers to the process of delivering physical goods to the customer, is commonly cited as one of the most expensive and critical operations. As the development of the online channel has been fostering, there has witnessed an escalation in difficulty of managing both the process of order picking and that of delivering orders to customers, especially in managing food products. This could be on account of the short delivery times and the preservation of specific products. Although numerous studies on the research of order picking process as well as last-mile delivery process have been conducted, there are only a minority of research focusing on the efficiency of the picking process in terms of different types of food products. Furthermore, it could be noticed a lack of mathematical models that jointly resolve both picking activities and optimal planning strategy for last mile delivery process. In this study, a mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed to determine the time windows during which picking process and transport should take place as well as the assignment of trucks and motorbikes to delivery routes. Managers may enhance the decision-making process that guarantee service quality and save e-fulfillment costs from a joint picking and delivery point of view.