Improving The Efficiency Of The Order Picking Process By Optimizing The Integrated Order Batching And Sequencing Problems In The Warehouse

Abstract

Businesses today are actively pursuing warehousing enhancements through the implementation of the order-picking problem due to their perceived critical importance. Order picking is the systematic procedure of extracting products from their assigned storage locations to satisfy customer orders. Warehouses enhance order-picking efficiency by carefully consolidating customer orders in picking batches. Generally, it is necessary to fulfill customer orders within specific due dates to prevent any disruptions in production or delivery to customers. The punctuality of order deliveries is significantly influenced by four key factors: the composition of the batches, the processing time required for picking them, the assignment of personnel responsible for selecting, and the scheduling sequence in which orders are picked. The overall delay of customer orders is reduced by applying Variable Neighbourhood Search and its improvement with local search–based heuristics in this research. Numerical experiments compare how well the two methods work in several different types of order-picking problems. It has been shown that the proposed methods offer potential solutions that could enhance the effectiveness of order-picking operations