Walk less, pick more: choosing optimal batches of orders in a warehouse
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Sigvardsson, Martin
Persson, Christian
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Most warehouses employ a picker-to-parts strategy, where humans (termed pickers)
traverse the warehouse to collect items. It is common for pickers to collect items
for several orders at once. Such a set of orders is called a batch. Two optimization
problems arise from this strategy. The picker routing problem refers to finding routes
through the warehouse to minimize the distance traveled. The batching problem
refers to selecting a combination of orders that minimizes the distance traveled.
These problems are the focus of this thesis.
To solve the optimization problems in the context of a real-world warehouse, a
graph model representing a warehouse was created. In addition, a model was created
for representing orders and batches as sets of nodes in such a graph. Additionally,
a collection of algorithms was designed to solve the optimization problems.
The models and the algorithms were implemented in code in the form of a library
for the C# programming language. The library is accompanied by a suite of tests to
help verify the correctness of the implementations. Furthermore, a suite of benchmarks
was created based on real-world warehouse data supplied by the company
Ongoing Warehouse. These benchmarks were used to evaluate the models and algorithms
in terms of quality and runtime. Based on the evaluation, a recommendation
was presented to Ongoing Warehouse of algorithms to use for integration into their
warehouse management system.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
warehouse , optimization , picker routing , order batching , travelling salesperson problem , benchmarks , C#