An Exact Model for the order picker routing problem in warehouses

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractAcademic

Abstract

This paper is dealing with the order picker routing problem within a multi-block warehouse layout with several aisles. In the literature, exact algorithms only exist for small warehouses with few cross aisles (typically two or three), while for larger warehouse configurations a series of heuristic and meta-heuristic methods are available. We present a novel pre-processing algorithm for graph reduction by eliminating the extra corner vertices and aisles from the graph of warehouse locations
and aisles. This allows us to solve this routing problem with a general TSP solver while significantly reducing running times. The presented method allows us to solve adequately big (more realistic) instances exactly. The algorithm is implemented and evaluated experimentally on a set of problem instances from the literature. The computational results illustrate that the proposed model outperforms existing formulations in terms of simplicity, size, and calculation time. Our mathematical model gives an optimum solution for all the instances, while the network size could be reduced by almost 73% on average.
Original languageEnglish
Pages257
Publication statusPublished - 2021
EventEURO European Conference on Operational Research - University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
Duration: 11 Jul 202114 Jul 2021
https://euro2021athens.com/

Conference

ConferenceEURO European Conference on Operational Research
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityAthens
Period11/07/2114/07/21
Internet address

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