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Setting Cutoff Times For Picking Systems With Capacity Degradation, Kevin R. Gue Jan 2014

Setting Cutoff Times For Picking Systems With Capacity Degradation, Kevin R. Gue

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

In the new landscape of e-commerce distribution, firms must offer increasingly aggressive delivery promises and then make good on them. These promises often take the form of a cutoff time, such that orders placed before the cutoff time receive premium service (next-day, same-day, etc.) and those placed afterward do not. Later cutoff times are stronger, of course, but the fulfillment system might not be able to process the order before the deadline. How late is too late? We develop a deterministic model to answer this and related questions when the order fulfillment system batches orders for efficient picking operations and …


Comparing Industry And Academic Perspectives On Cross-Docking Operations, Paul Buijs, Iris F.A. Vis Jan 2014

Comparing Industry And Academic Perspectives On Cross-Docking Operations, Paul Buijs, Iris F.A. Vis

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

This paper performs a comparative analysis on the industry and academic perspectives on cross-docking operations. Detailed descriptions are provided for three typical cross-dock settings by means of case illustrations. The purpose of these descriptions is to inspire break-through innovations in future cross-docking research by identifying constraints, decision problems, and performance indicators that are thoroughly anchored in current practice.


An Empirical Study About The Effectiveness Of Lean Empowerment In Warehouses, Kai Furmans, Payam Dehdari Jan 2014

An Empirical Study About The Effectiveness Of Lean Empowerment In Warehouses, Kai Furmans, Payam Dehdari

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Lean Management is well established in production environments. Some empirical evidences are available which suggest that in production systems lean management achieves positive results. For warehousing, some works have already been done, which deal with the application and adaption of lean tools for usage in warehousing. In order to answer the question, whether the application of lean tools leads to a better performance however, no study is available today. Therefore, an empirical study has been conducted, where the effectiveness of lean empowerment has been tested and compared to the performance of warehouse, who continued to work as before.


Clickstream Big Data And “Delivery Before Order Making” Mode For Online Retailers, Yeming Yale Gong, Haoxuan Xu Jan 2014

Clickstream Big Data And “Delivery Before Order Making” Mode For Online Retailers, Yeming Yale Gong, Haoxuan Xu

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Our research is inspired by a leading online retailer using clickstream big data to estimate customer demand and then ship items to customers or hubs near customers by a mode of “delivery before order making” (DBOM) mode. Using clickstream data to obtain advance demand information in order quantities, we integrate the forecasting with a singleitem uncapacitated dynamic lot sizing problem in a rolling-horizon environment. Using the simulated clickstream data, we evaluate the performance of DBOM mode.


Real-Time Dock Door Monitoring System Using A Kinect Sensor, Hector J. Carlo, Cristina Pomales- Garcia, Yeiram Martinez Jan 2014

Real-Time Dock Door Monitoring System Using A Kinect Sensor, Hector J. Carlo, Cristina Pomales- Garcia, Yeiram Martinez

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

This study presents a proof of concept where a single Microsoft Kinect sensor is used for automated monitoring of a dock door in real-time. The proposed system will automatically and in real-time: (1) detect when an object breaches the dock door perimeter, and its corresponding speed and direction, (2) count the number of pallets loaded/unloaded to/from a trailer, (3) record the loading/unloading time of each load, and (4) reconstruct an image of every loading/unloading trip at a dock door, irrespectively of the material handling travel speed and direction. Particular emphasis is given to discussing how to extend the proposed concept …


A Framework For The Robust Design Of Unit Load Storage Systems, Marc Goetschalckx, Edward Huang, Pratik Mital Jan 2014

A Framework For The Robust Design Of Unit Load Storage Systems, Marc Goetschalckx, Edward Huang, Pratik Mital

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

The unit load storage assignment problem determines the assignment of a set of unit loads with known arrival and departure times to a set of unit storage locations in a warehouse. The material handling device(s) can carry at most one unit load at the time. In this research it is assumed that each of the storage locations can be accessed directly without load relocations or rearrangements and that the travel times between the storage locations and from and to the warehousing docks can be computed in advance. The objective is to minimize the total travel time of the material handling …


Grid Facilities Design: Dynamic Modular Deployment Of Production, Handling And Storage Resources, Suzanne Marcotte, Benoit Montreuil Jan 2014

Grid Facilities Design: Dynamic Modular Deployment Of Production, Handling And Storage Resources, Suzanne Marcotte, Benoit Montreuil

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

To survive and thrive in a fast-moving environment, facilities must be designed to show adaptability, flexibility and robustness. As some facilities are depicted by heavy and sophisticated equipment costly and hard to displace, others are composed of moveable workstations with highly flexible workers. In most cases, the trade-off is between the cost of redeploying the resources and the excessive cost of material handling and storage incurred by an inefficient deployment of the resources. We propose a design strategy based on (1) conceiving and designing the facility as a stable grid of modules, (2) dynamically deploying production, storage and handling resources …


Variation In Lifting Behavior During A Highly Repetitive Manual Material Task, Steven A. Lavender Jan 2014

Variation In Lifting Behavior During A Highly Repetitive Manual Material Task, Steven A. Lavender

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Presenters will provide.


An Experimental Study Of The Impact Of Warehouse Parameters On The Design Of A Case-Picking Warehouse, Russell D. Meller, Lisa M. Thomas Jan 2014

An Experimental Study Of The Impact Of Warehouse Parameters On The Design Of A Case-Picking Warehouse, Russell D. Meller, Lisa M. Thomas

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

The best design for a warehouse is based on its ability to meet the demands placed on the warehouse, which are typically characterized by warehouse parameters like the order , inventory requirements, etc. Consequently, these parameters should be considered in the design process. In this paper we characterize the design of a case-picking ware- house with design variables and identify the warehouse parameters that have the greatest impact in setting the values of these variables. With our analysis, the search for the optimal design can be reduced by limiting the design space considered.


An Analysis Of Single-Command Operations In A Mobile Rack (As/Rs) Served By A Single Order Picker, Amine Hakim Guezzen, Zaki Sari Jan 2014

An Analysis Of Single-Command Operations In A Mobile Rack (As/Rs) Served By A Single Order Picker, Amine Hakim Guezzen, Zaki Sari

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A Mobile rack Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (MAS/ RS) are picker-to-stock retrieval model which are a variation of the multi aisles AS/RS. This mobile storage system is composed of racks moving laterally on rails so that one can open an aisle between any two adjacent racks, the input/output system, the storage and retrieval (S/R) machine and the computer management system or the control system. Evaluating an AS/RS could be done using several performance indicators, the two most important ones are: The utilization rate of the S/R machine and the average time necessary to serve storage or retrieval requests (the …


Throughput Analysis Of S/R Shuttle Systems, Georg Kartnig, Jörg Oser Jan 2014

Throughput Analysis Of S/R Shuttle Systems, Georg Kartnig, Jörg Oser

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Shuttle systems are used in high performance automated storage/retrieval unit load systems. Each storage level is serviced by one transfer car travelling in dual command operation. One buffer slot is located at both ends of each level. This decouples horizontal travel from vertical input/output moves, which in this case requires two independent vertical reciprocating lifts at each end of the aisle. Other systems work with only one lift used in lower throughput applications. The content of this paper is treated in the following sections starting with a problem definition and a literature survey. This is followed by a detailed functional …


Positioning Automated Guided Vehicles In A General Guide-Path Layout, Abraham Mendoza, Jose A. Ventura Jan 2014

Positioning Automated Guided Vehicles In A General Guide-Path Layout, Abraham Mendoza, Jose A. Ventura

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

The locations of dwell points for idle vehicles in an automated guided vehicle (AGV) system determine the response times for pick-up requests and thus affect the performance of automated manufacturing systems. In this study, we address the problem of optimally locating dwell points for multiple AGVs in general guide-path layouts with the objective of minimizing the maximum response time in the system. We propose a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for the problem. We also develop a generic genetic algorithm (GA) to find near optimal solutions. The MILP model and GA procedure are illustrated using a two-dimensional grid layout …


Order Batching With Time Constraints In A Parallel-Aisle Warehouse: A Multiple-Policy Approach, Soondo Hong, Andrew L. Johnson, Brett A. Peters Jan 2014

Order Batching With Time Constraints In A Parallel-Aisle Warehouse: A Multiple-Policy Approach, Soondo Hong, Andrew L. Johnson, Brett A. Peters

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A commitment of delivery time is critical in some online businesses (De Koster, 2003). An important challenge to meeting customers’ needs is timely order picking which is also relevant to worker safety, item freshness, overall operational synchronization, and reduced overtime. We analyze an order batch picking situation where a trip is constrained by vehicle capacity and must be completed within a specified time. We develop a model which partitions orders to batches to minimize the total travel time such that each trip meets the orders’ time constraints and capacity limit, and also determines a suitable operational policy for each batch. …


A New Approach For Generating Facility Layouts Using An Algorithmic Approach, Volker Sadowsky, Christian Mosblech Jan 2014

A New Approach For Generating Facility Layouts Using An Algorithmic Approach, Volker Sadowsky, Christian Mosblech

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

In this paper a new approach is described to automatically create layouts for material flow systems. The current research in progress aiming at adopting the methods and algorithms of the Electronic Design Automation to be used in logistics planning is presented. These methods are already applied to create microchips being multiple times more complex than material flow systems while following the same goal: Functional units have to be placed on a predefined area and are linked by connections weighted differently. This basic requirement can be applied to microchip designs as well as material flow systems. The common condition is to …


Designing Retail Facilities To Improve Product Exposure, Pratik J. Parikh, Corinne Mowrey Jan 2014

Designing Retail Facilities To Improve Product Exposure, Pratik J. Parikh, Corinne Mowrey

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A retail facility should effectively engage consumers during their shopping trips if they want to convert demand into purchases. Unfortunately, the complexity of the retailing environment and lack of scientific tools often results in gut-feel approaches experimented in practice. A key factor to retail design often alluded to, but rarely analyzed, is product exposure to the travelling shopper. We define the extent of the shopper's field of vision in order to determine the actual exposure of products experienced by a traveling shopper. In so doing, we can explore the effect rack orientation has on product exposure. Our main contributions include …


Experimental Validation Of Travel Time Models For Shuttle-Based Automated Storage And Retrieval System, Zaki Sari, Latefa Ghomri, Banu Y. Ekren, Tone Lerher Jan 2014

Experimental Validation Of Travel Time Models For Shuttle-Based Automated Storage And Retrieval System, Zaki Sari, Latefa Ghomri, Banu Y. Ekren, Tone Lerher

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

In this paper, we aim to validate travel time models for single and dual command cycle displacements of lifts and shuttles in a shuttle-based automated storage and retrieval system (SBS/RS) by using experimental computer simulation. The models under consideration take into account acceleration and deceleration delays. We use ARENA 12 software for the simulation modeling. By simulation, we emulate the real functioning of the system. Therefore, we assume that the results from the ARENA simulation are equivalent to the onsite experimentation. Simulation results are very close to those obtained by analytical travel time models. This shows the high precision of …


Model And Algorithm For Supply Chain Analysis In Energy-Wood Industry, Thorsten Schmidt, Hannes Hahne Jan 2014

Model And Algorithm For Supply Chain Analysis In Energy-Wood Industry, Thorsten Schmidt, Hannes Hahne

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Short rotation coppices are a renewable energy concept based on renewable raw material. This paper proposes a model and calculation method which generates valid supply chains using quantified technological and infrastructural constraints.


A Two-Level Stochastic Model To Estimate Vessel Throughput Time, Debjit Roy, Vibhuti Dhingra, Rene De Koster Jan 2014

A Two-Level Stochastic Model To Estimate Vessel Throughput Time, Debjit Roy, Vibhuti Dhingra, Rene De Koster

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A good estimate of the vessel sojourn time is essential for better planning and scheduling Of container terminal resources,such as berth scheduling,quay crane(qc)assignment And scheduling,and fleet size planning. However,estimating the expected vessel so journ Time is a complex exercise because the time is dependent on several terminal operating Parameters such as the size of the vessel,the number of containers to be loaded and Unloaded,and the through put of the qcs. The through put of the qcs in turn depends On the type and number of transport vehicles,number of stack blocks,the topology of The vehicle travel path,the layout of the terminal,and …


A Frame Work And Analysis To Inform The Selection Of Piece-Level Order-Fulfillment Technologies, Jennifer A. Pazour, Russell D. Meller Jan 2014

A Frame Work And Analysis To Inform The Selection Of Piece-Level Order-Fulfillment Technologies, Jennifer A. Pazour, Russell D. Meller

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Thepiece-levelorder-fulfillmenttechnologyselectionproblemisanimportantstrategicproblemthatsignificantlyimpactsdistributioncentercosts andoperations,andistypicallysolvedbasedonempiricalexperiences.Given ademandcurveandasuiteofavailablepiece-levelorder-fulfillmenttechnologies, weanalyzewhereinthedemandcurvedifferentorder-fulfillment technologiesshouldbeapplied. Todoso, wedevelopaframeworkthat jointlydeterminesthebestcombinationofpiece-levelorder-fulfillmenttechnologiesandtheassignmentofSKUstothesetechnologies, whichrelaxes thesequential-modelingapproachofpreviousresearch. Wevalidateour methodologywithindustrydataandshowthatour modelprovidestechnologyrecommendationsandSKUassignmentsthatareconsistent with successfulimplementations. Throughasetofnumericalexperimentsand statisticalanalysis,weidentifykeyfactorsinimplementingmanualversus automatedorder-fulfillmenttechnologiesandprovideobservationsintothe applicationofdifferentorder-fulfillmenttechnologystrategies.Finally,we presentconclusionsandfutureresearchdirections.


Optimization Of Skus' Locations In Warehouse, David Sourek, Vaclav Cempirek Jan 2014

Optimization Of Skus' Locations In Warehouse, David Sourek, Vaclav Cempirek

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Many companies, which deal with warehousing, optimize their warehouses. The main business of these companies is to offer to customers the warehousing services. It is possible to note that these companies are specialized in warehousing. On the other hand, we can find companies, which have as the main business the selling of goods to customers. These companies use the warehouses too but in a little bit different way. The arrangement of their warehouses can be very unsuitable and convenient for optimization. Our paper is focused on optimization of stored goods’ locations based on market basket analysis. The solution of this …


The Cube Per Order Index Slotting Strategy, How Bad Can It Be?, Peter C. Schuur Jan 2014

The Cube Per Order Index Slotting Strategy, How Bad Can It Be?, Peter C. Schuur

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A well-known and frequently applied policy to assign stock keeping units (SKUs) to (dedicated) storage locations in a warehouse is the Cube per Order Index (COI) slotting strategy. Basically, COI stores an SKU based on how frequently it is picked per unit of stock space required. Fast movers are located close to the Input-Output points. For single command order picking, COI slotting is well-known to minimize order picking travel time. For multi command this is no longer true. An interesting question is: how bad can it be? In this paper we show that there is no limit to this badness. …


Comparison Of Alternative Configurations For Dense Warehousing Systems, Kevin R. Gue, G. Don Taylor Jan 2014

Comparison Of Alternative Configurations For Dense Warehousing Systems, Kevin R. Gue, G. Don Taylor

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

In heavily constrained environments requiring very high density storage, traditional aisle-based warehousing may not provide viable options. One feasible manifestation of high density storage systems is the ‘puzzle-based’ system, in which unit loads are moved through the system via manipulation of empty (escort) locations to retrieve desired items. Another option would be the use of movable concentric rings, with escorts being utilized to enable lateral movements of unit loads between the rings. In this paper, the authors present analytical results to compare retrieval time performance for these two types of high density storage systems for randomly demanded items under various …


Modeling Conveyor Merges In Zone Picking Systems, Rene De Koster, Ivo J.B.F. Adan, Jacques Resing Jan 2014

Modeling Conveyor Merges In Zone Picking Systems, Rene De Koster, Ivo J.B.F. Adan, Jacques Resing

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

In many order picking and sorting systems conveyors are used to transport products through the system and to merge multiple flows of products into one single flow. In practice, conveyor merges are potential points of congestion, and consequently can lead to a reduced throughput. In this paper, we study merges in a zone picking system. The performance of a zone picking system is, for a large part, determined by the performance of the merge locations. We model the system as a closed queueing network that describes the conveyor, the pick zones, and the merge locations. The resulting model does not …


Development Of A Heuristics For A Criteria Based Planning Of Pallet Storage Systems, Detlef Spee, Michael Schmidt, Steffen Schieweck Jan 2014

Development Of A Heuristics For A Criteria Based Planning Of Pallet Storage Systems, Detlef Spee, Michael Schmidt, Steffen Schieweck

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Reproducible and quantitative reasoning as the foundation for high-quality planning processes evolves to be key to achieve high quality of speed for logistical processes. This article strives to fulfill this demand by developing a coherent heuristics for the planning of pallet storage systems. The heuristics uses quantitative approaches provided by the available literature. In case of nonexistent sources, the missing components are developed and integrated. To be applicable in an industrial environment, the comparison and assessment of the created implementation alternatives is mainly monetary based. The heuristics follows a modular structure to achieve adaptability and extensibility. It explicitly does not …


Integrate Vehicle Routing And Truck Sequencing In Cross-Docking Operations, Ching-Jung Ting, Ting-Don Chen Jan 2014

Integrate Vehicle Routing And Truck Sequencing In Cross-Docking Operations, Ching-Jung Ting, Ting-Don Chen

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Cross-docking is a an important logistics strategy in which freight is unloaded from inbound vehicles and directly loaded into outbound vehicles, with little or no storage in between. This study considers a crossdocking system which combines the vehicle routing problem with crossdocking (VRPCD) for both inbound and outbound operations and truck sequencing problem at docks. The objective is to minimize the logistics center operation costs and transportation costs. We first formulated the integrated problem with a mixed integer programming model. Since VRPCD and sequencing problems are NP-hard, the integrated problem is also an NP-hard problem. We propose an ant colony …


Data Model And Software Tools For Modeling Picking Operations, Jeffrey S. Smith Jan 2014

Data Model And Software Tools For Modeling Picking Operations, Jeffrey S. Smith

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Presenter will provide.


Integrating Analysis Into A Warehouse Design Workflow, Leon Mcginnis, Timothy Sprock Jan 2014

Integrating Analysis Into A Warehouse Design Workflow, Leon Mcginnis, Timothy Sprock

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Supply chain analyses, including those related to material handling systems, are typically purpose-built to answer specific questions and therefore have many different implementations depending on the question, the instance data, and the solver. The purpose-built nature of these models makes it difficult to integrate them into an iterative design workflow. Despite the myriad analysis implementations, the fundamental structure of these systems and their problem domain remains unchanged, suggesting that perhaps analyses could be automatically generated on demand, given an appropriate specification of the particular system to be analyzed. We apply model-based systems engineering (MBSE) methodologies to explore this possibility in …


Performance Comparison Of Various Order Picking Methods In Different Behavioral Contexts, Jelle De Vries, Rene De Koster, Daan Stam Jan 2014

Performance Comparison Of Various Order Picking Methods In Different Behavioral Contexts, Jelle De Vries, Rene De Koster, Daan Stam

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Three manual picker-to-parts order picking methods (parallel picking, zone picking, and dynamic zone picking) are employed in an experimental warehouse setup and compared in terms of productivity, quality, and job satisfaction. Participants worked in teams and were subject to either an individual- based, or a team-based incentive scheme. Furthermore, the influence of individual participants’ dominant regulatory focus (promotion or prevention) was taken into account. The outcomes show that in parallel picking an incentive system focused on individual performance is beneficial for productivity and quality compared to an incentive system focused on team performance, whereas team-based incentives are more productive in …


Analysis Of Class-Based Storage Strategies For The Mobile Shelf-Based Order Pick System, Shobhit Nigam, Debjit Roy, Rene De Koster, Ivo J.B.F. Adan Jan 2014

Analysis Of Class-Based Storage Strategies For The Mobile Shelf-Based Order Pick System, Shobhit Nigam, Debjit Roy, Rene De Koster, Ivo J.B.F. Adan

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Mobile Shelf-based Order Pick (MSOP) systems are gaining significant in- terest for e-commerce fulfillment due to their rapid deployment capability and dynamic organization of storage pods based on item demand profiles. In this research, we model the MSOP system with class-based storage strategies and alternate pod storage policies using multi-class closed queuing networks. We observe that though closest-open location pod storage policy do not allow to efficiently use the storage spaces in comparison to random location pod storage policy in an aisle, it increases the system throughput for all item classes.


Modeling And Optimization Of Radio Frequency Identification Networks For Inventory Management, Atipong Suriya, Jose D. Porter Jan 2014

Modeling And Optimization Of Radio Frequency Identification Networks For Inventory Management, Atipong Suriya, Jose D. Porter

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Stock loss and out-of-stocks are outcomes of poorly designed inventory management systems and can lead to significant revenue losses. Inventory management systems (IMSs) based on radio frequency identification (RFID) have the potential to minimize these losses if they are properly designed and deployed. However, the placement of RFID readers to support IMSs is often done on a trial and error basis which is time consuming and results in less than optimal coverage. A methodology to find the optimal location and number of RFID readers in a warehouse facility to ensure a desired level of radio frequency signal coverage was developed …