Title: The effect of order batching on a unidirectional cyclical picking line's completion time

Authors: Flora M. Hofmann; Stephan E. Visagie

Addresses: Department of Logistics, Stellenbosch University, South Africa ' Department of Logistics, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Abstract: An investigation into the effect of order batching in an order picking system that uses a unidirectional cyclical picking line forms the main focus of this paper. The three main actions of pickers are to walk, pick and prepare cartons. The total amount of work for the last two actions remains constant, rendering the minimisation of walking distance as the only objective when minimising the total picking effort. Batches are formed to minimise walking distance. The question thus arises, what is the total time saving before and after batching? This picking system is modelled with a discrete event simulation. Historical data were compared to the output of the simulation for validation of the simulation. It showed that the simulation represents the real world picking system satisfactorily. The simulation runs also show that the order batching heuristics that aim at minimising walking distance reduce the overall picking time by up to 21%.

Keywords: discrete event simulation; DES; distribution centre; picker number; order batching; order picking system; pick density; picking location metrics; retail industry; route overlap metrics; unidirectional cyclical picking line.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2022.126016

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2022 Vol.43 No.2, pp.153 - 176

Received: 22 May 2020
Accepted: 14 Jul 2020
Published online: 07 Oct 2022 *

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