Storage policies and order picking strategies in U-shaped order-picking systems with a movable base

Prior research on storage policies and order-picking strategies in order-picking systems has concentrated on studying warehouses with parallel shelves that are separated by horizontal and/or vertical aisles. This paper analyses a special case of an order-picking system where the warehouse is divided into zones with shelves being arranged in the shape of a U in each of the zones. The paper assumes that the shelves of the order-picking system are made up of two rows of stillages that can be flexibly exchanged and that the base of the order-picking process can be moved within the aisle prior to the beginning of the order-picking process. We describe the order-picking system in a formal model and propose different storage location assignment policies whose efficiency is compared in a numerical study. The paper pays special attention to the practical applicability of the model and proposes heuristics that can be easily implemented in practice.