Developing an order picking policy for economical packing

Abstract

Order picking is not only one of the most crucial tasks, but also the most expensive of warehouse operations costs in a distribution center. Therefore, improving picking efficiency is a critical benefit to distribution center operations. The study explores the condition of the lowest packaging costs and shortest travel distance in order to improve the order processing and picking efficiency. We propose an economical-packing order picking policy, which is an extending research of our previous researches, sequence order picking and batch picking for large numbers of small quantities in the B2C distribution center. A mathematic programming decision model is formed to minimize the remaining space of mailing boxes and the picking path of each order. A generic warehouse management system with the proposed order picking function has been conceptually implemented to demonstrate the elimination of storage buffers and the reduction of operation time.