Order Batching and sequencing in a sequential zone order picking system with consideration of workload balance

Order Batching and sequencing in a sequential zone order picking system with consideration of workload balance

Author: Jeongwon Park, Henokh Y. Fibrianto, and Soondo Hong

• This paper aims to develop an order batching and sequencing model for zone work balancing (OBZ) in a sequential zone order picking system (OPS) as means of reducing the amount of delay time in a sequential zone OPS.
• This study contributes to address the impact of order batching and the release square sequence of the tote on the workload imbalance in time from a sequential zone OPS by reducing the variables contributing to the higher amount of potential delay rather than the amount of delay itself.
• The proposed approach in this paper is a mixed-integer programming model (MIP) aiming to balance the workload and minimize the make span for OBZ.
• The results of the experiment conducted in this study unveils that the OBZ results in order picking efficiency in terms of stochastic environment, and it requires less computational power for every case. Furthermore, this study attests that considering larger batch window size led to better effective order picking efficiency improvement at the expense of more computational power and demonstrates OBZ’s robustly effective order picking performance when OPS experiences more frequent batch window transition.