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...

In this paper, we consider a newly-designed compact three-dimensional automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). The system consists of an automated crane taking care of movements in the horizontal and vertical direction. A gravity conveying mechanism takes care of the depth movement. Our...

The order batching problem (OBP) is the problem of determining the number of orders to be picked together in one picking tour. Although various objectives may arise in practice, minimizing the average throughput time of a random order is a common concern. In this paper, we consider the OBP for a...

This work aims at investigating the influence of picking batch size to average time in system of orders in a one-aisle warehouse under the assumption that order arrivals follow a Poisson process and items are uniformly distributed over the aisle's length. We model this problem as an M/G[k]/1...

In this paper, we consider a newly-designed automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). The system consists of an automated crane taking care of movements in the horizontal and vertical direction. A gravity conveying mechanism takes care of the depth movement. The aim of the research was to...

Already for a long time retailers take back products. In this paper we explore the factors contributing to the decision of combining vs. separating inbound and outbound flows during the return handling process. We do so through a comparative analysis of the operations in nine retailer...

Japanese companies value service and quality highly and they put much effort in realising this. However, survey research carried out in 2001 among senior managers of Japanese logistics companies in the Netherlands, indicated that these efforts do not result in significant performance differences...

This paper studies the performance of static and real-time scheduling approaches in vehicle-based internal transport (VBIT) systems, which can be found in manufacturing and warehouse facilities. We propose three heuristic approaches for static VBIT problems (insertion, combined and column...

Local authorities increasingly use time-access regulations to improve social sustainability issues, such as the attractiveness of a city centre, the shopping climate, or to reduce the nuisance caused by urban freight transport. However, these time-windows increase delivery costs and the...

In the warehouse of Ankor, a wholesaler of tools and garden equipment, various problems concerning the storage and retrieval of products arise. For example, heavy products have to be retrieved prior to light products to prevent damage. Furthermore, the layout of the warehouse differs from the...