Accepted Manuscript

Optimal Warehouse Design: Literature Review and Case Study Application

Furkan Yener, Harun Resit Yazgan

PII: S0360-8352(19)30013-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2019.01.006
Reference: CAIE 5632

To appear in: Computers & Industrial Engineering

Received Date: 19 February 2017

Revised Date: 1 January 2019
Accepted Date: 3 January 2019

Please cite this article as: Yener, F., Resit Yazgan, H., Optimal Warehouse Design: Literature Review and Case
Study Application, Computers & Industrial Engineering (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2019.01.006

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Optimal Warehouse Design Literature Review and Case Study
Application

Furkan YENER*, Harun Resit YAZGAN

Department of Industrial Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Sakarya University,

Esentepe Campus, Serdivan, Sakarya, Turkey

*Corresponding author: Furkan YENER, fyener@sakarya.edu.tr

1
Optimal Warehouse Design: Literature Review and Case Study
Application

Abstract

This paper investigates the effectiveness of designing warehouses to determine

average order picking time and travelled distance using a data mining technique.
Order picking is a warehouse operation that is repeated for each order. Therefore,
it can have a significant impact on system efficiency. Based on this framework,
three issues are examined in this study, the effectiveness of warehouse design, an
assignment problem is solved with using a new proposed mathematical model
and a Multidimensional Scaling Algorithm (MDS), and order picking process.
The proposed mixed integer quadratic model consists of associations rules related
to a customer’s consumption pattern, capacity of the items, and stores both the
distance among items and staging area. The routes from a large number of
randomly selected picking requests are sorted by integer linear mathematical
model which bases on the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). The effectiveness of
the warehouse design, alternative assignments and different order picking
policies are evaluated by using a simulation method on a real life problem. This
study may cause to minimization of fork lift numbers, worker numbers, overtime
payments and congestions of forklift drivers. Moreover, system throughputs and
customer satisfaction is increased. Results of the study shows that the proposed
approach using the mathematical model produce much more favourable results
for the warehouse management.

Keywords: Warehouse design, Warehouse assignment problem, Multi-order

picking, Multidimensional Scaling, Data mining, Simulation

2
1. Introduction

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) plays a vital role in the overall supply chain

process and its significance is rising with recent innovations and developments. The

WMS is used integrally for managing warehouse processes. Warehouses include the

variety of different processes such as order picking, handling, items loading, palletizing

and stacking. If the processes are well analysed, analytical methods can be suggested

easily. Based on this, are minor improvements made on any processes, it will cause to

creating cumulatively effect on the overall efficiency because of the huge reputation

rates of warehouse operations.

Warehouse design concerns are involved a large number of interrelated

decisions that effects installation cost of the warehouse. For instance, item assignment is

one of the all-consuming conclusion of these decisions. After a period of time, the

design of a warehouse can become outdated due to factors as if market trends and

changing company strategies, so a new design may be required. When the design of a

warehouse is determined, the system requirements such as investment and operational

costs, volume and mix flexibility, throughput, storage capacity, response time, and order

fulfilment quality should be well analysed.

Order picking is a warehouse operation that is repeated for each order, so it has a

considerable effect on the system efficiency. The order picking policy may be

influenced by sectoral requirements, customer requests, order structures or items

features. The design of the warehouse and assignment of the items are also interaction

with order picking efficiency.

3
 With this study, a refrigerated warehouse - stores a wide span of products such

as milk, cheese, jams, honey, yogurt, butter, dessert, chocolate, liquid oil, ice cream and

baby food - was examined. The design of the warehouse, the method to assign items and

order picking policies were examined in this study. The results of the different scenarios

were assessed by the simulation. The findings were statistically proven, interpreted and

discussed in the results section.

A new warehouse design and assignment of items decisions were supposed to be

proposed to make more productive the order picking process. For this reason, a new

mathematical model and a MDS were used for the assignment of the items in existing

and proposed designs.

We believe that this is a unique study on a warehouse assignment problem

because of the comparison of two different assignment methods in different two

warehouse designs. There is no similar type of a study in the literature. Warehouse

design, storage assignment and picking policies were analyzed with a hierarchical

approach, in this respect, this is an exclusive study for literature.

This paper is organized as follows: in the next section a brief overview of the

relevant literature is given. As the warehouse management is discussed in section 3,

section 4 provides a statement of the problem. Details of the association rules and the

MDS are discussed in section 5. Section 6 deals with the characteristics and definition

of the proposed approach which is hierarchically applied on a real life case study and

also a comparison based on the results of a numerical investigation are presented in

section 7. Finally, the conclusions and future works are presented in section 8.

4
2. Literature review
This paper presents a systematic literature review of warehouse design and management

in order to know the current state of art, and explore the opportunities for further

research.

The classical combinatorial optimization problems, the bin-packing problem

(BPP) and the travelling salesman problem (TSP), are two examples of warehouse

problems. Both are quite easy to state and formulate, but hard to solve. BPP is generally

used to decide the positions of goods in storages or pallets. TSP is used to formulate

picking routes in a warehouse. Order picking is one of the most labour-intensive activity

within warehouse operations. There is a great deal of literature available on order

picking policies. Some studies related to order picking policies which are summarized

as follows.

Armstrong, Cook, & Saipe (1979) formulated a MILP(Mixed Integer Linear

Programming) model to determine an order picking policy for minimizing the total

picking time. Elsayed (1981), Elsayed & Stern (1983), Elsayed & Unal (1989)

presented heuristic algorithms for picking orders in a warehouse. They aimed to

minimize total distance travelled for picking the orders. Ratliff & Rosenthal (1983)

presented an algorithm that found a picking route for an order picking time minimized

with two cross aisles as front and back. They developed an efficient procedure to

determine a picking route with using a simple ladder structure. Han, McGinnis, Shieh,

& White (1987) dealt with the problem of proposing possible improvements in the

throughput of the system for sequencing of retrievals in dual command cycles. M.

Goetschalckx & Ratliff (1988) examined on the effects of wide aisles for an order

picking route.

5
 An order picking route was modelled by being inspired the TSP, found in the

study of Daniels, Rummel, & Schantz (1998). They formulated a model for determining

the assignment in the warehouse for order picking. Several extensions of TSP heuristics

such as nearest neighbour, shortest arc, randomized construction and a Tabu search

algorithm were applied. C. G. I. Petersen (1997) presented a comparative study which

considered many routing heuristics. In his study, he evaluated alternatives belong to the

shape of forward area, location of picking and distributing points. Russell & Petersen

(2000) also evaluated alternative picking policies. Vaughan & Petersen (1999)

compared results of Ratliff & Rosenthal (1983) considering five routing heuristics. He

claimed that warehouse factors, shapes, location of the input/output (I/O) stations and

picking size e.g., were affected their system performance. De Koster & Van Der Poor

(1998) compared new algorithms and heuristics solutions for routing order pickers

within the context of three realistic order picking systems: (1) a narrow-aisle high-bay

pallet warehouse; (2) picking in a shelf area with decentralized depositing of picked

items; and (3) conventional order picking from wide-aisle pallet locations. Roodbergen

& De Koster (2001a) developed an algorithm to find the shortest order picking tour in a

parallel aisle warehouse. Roodbergen & De Koster (2001b) added two or more cross

aisles to the warehouse layout and determined order picking routes. Nevertheless,

having reported that more cross aisles may or may not decrease travel time. C. H. Lin &

Lu (1999) classified all orders into five categories which based on an analytic method.

Appropriate order picking policies were generated with using a computer simulation for

each type of the classified orders.

Metaheuristic algorithms, have been recently developed to solve an optimization

problem, are wieldy used in literature. (Gu, 2005) used a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to

solve a multi-orders picking policy problem. Persson & Saccani (2007) presented a

6
simulation model for managing the after-sales logistic network. Hsieh, Huang, & Huang

(2007) used a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to schedule order picking

routes. Gue & Meller (2014) used a PSO to determine the best aspect of cross aisles and

picking aisles for multiple, pre-determined pickup and deposit points in a unit-load

warehouse.

Order batching mean that, being grouped to several sub sets of orders. These sets

of orders may sort for minimizing travel distance. Order batching is also an important

issue to consider for order picking policies. We reviewed some researches that study on

order batching. C. H. Pan & Liu (1995) presented a study that composed seed selection

and order addition rules for an order batching problem in a warehouse. De Koster,

Poort, & Wolters (1999) developed three batching heuristics; simple (first-come first-

served), seed, and savings and they compared the performance of these batching

algorithms in terms of a problem’s complexity. M.-C. Chen et al. (2005) presented an

order batching approach for a parallel-aisle layout in their study. Mu-Chen Chen,

Huang, Chen, & Wu (2005) also considered the order batching problem with

association rules with using the order clustering approach for a parallel-aisle layout.

Hwang & Kim (2005) dealt with an order batching problem with using cluster analysis.

M.-C. Chen, Huang, Wu, Hsu, & Hsu (2005) developed an approach that based on the

GA to deal with order batching. Gademann & van de Velde (2005) presented an integer

programming model with using branch-and-price and approximation algorithms for a

parallel aisle warehouse. Ho & Tseng (2006) compared the performance of different

order batching policies such as a seed order and accompanying order selections on

different problems. Tsai, Liou, & Huang (2008) proposed different batch picking

models (the GA-Batch and the GA-TSP) considering not only travelling distance but

also earliness and tardiness penalty costs. The GA-Batch was employed to find an

7
optimal batching. The GA-TSP was used to search for the most effective order picking

route for a batch by minimizing the travelling distance. Henn & Wäscher (2012)

adapted a model from Gademann & van de Velde (2005) considering the order batching

problem for order picking with using two approaches. The Tabu search and an

Attribute-Based Hill Climber (ABHC) were tested on benchmark problems in the

literature. J. Zhang, Wang, & Huang (2016) presented bi-objective on-line order

batching algorithm for increasing of the number of delivered orders in e-commerce.

C. C. Lin, Kang, Hou, & Cheng (2016) combined order batching and the core

operation of order picking routing in the same model. They improve the model with

using PSO algorithm for order batching and order picking. Azadeh, Elahi, Farahani, &

Nasirian, (2017) applied Taguchi based approach to inventory routing problem and

solved this problem with GA. Elbert, Franzke, Glock, & Grosse (2017) proposed a

detailed evaluation of the relative efficiency of order picker routing policies while order

pickers deviated from pre-specified routes.

Current trends in warehouses, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS), are unmanned transport systems

which are produce different types of warehouse problems and performance criteria as if

different storages types, retrieval machine travelling speeds, storage rack configurations

and transactions scenarios. Ashayeri, Heuts, Valkenburg, Veraart, & Wilhelm (2002),

Lai, Xue, & Zhang (2002), Mahajan, Rao, & Peters (1998), Charles J. Malmborg

(2000), Charles J. Malmborg & Al-Tassan (2000), Meneghetti & Monti (2013), Sarker

& Babu (1995), Tappia, Marchet, Melacini, & Perotti (2015), Wauters, Villa,

Christiaens, Alvarez-Valdes, & Vanden Berghe (2016), Won & Olafsson (2005), Bozer

& White (1984) were some of the researchers who aimed to improve the throughput of

AS/RS using different order picking policies. Saidi-Mehrabad, Dehnavi-Arani,

8
Evazabadian, & Mahmoodian (2015) proposed a mathematical model which composed

of Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) and Conflict-Free Routing Problem (CFRP) for

AGVs. They solved the model with two stage Ant Colony Algorithm (ACA). Miyamoto

& Inoue (2016) developed an approach to conflict-free routing for AGV systems. We

summarized these studies mentioned above in Table 1.

Table 1: Studies on order picking policies

STUDY MM ACA GA PSO TA HA ST

(Armstrong et al., 1979)       
(Elsaye D, 1981; Elsayed & Stern, 1983; Elsayed & Unal, 1989)      
(Ratliff & Rosenthal, 1983)      
(Han et al., 1987)       
(M. Goetschalckx & Ratliff, 1988a 1988b)       
(C. H. Pan & Liu, 1995)      
(Sarker & Babu, 1995)       
(C. G. Petersen & Aase, 2004; C. G. I. Petersen, 1997)      
(Mahajan et al., 1998)      
(De Koster & Van Der Poor, 1998)      
(Daniels et al., 1998)     
( De Koster et al., 1999)      
(Vaughan & Petersen, 1999)      
(C. H. Lin & Lu, 1999)Lin and Lu (1999)       
(Charles J. Malmborg, 2000, 2001)       
(Roodbergen & De Koster, 2001b, 2001a)      
(Ashayeri et al., 2002)       
(G. Q. Zhang, Xue, & Lai, 2002)      
(Won & Olafsson, 2005)      
(Gu, 2005)     
(Hsu, Chen, & Chen, 2005)      
(Gademann & van de Velde, 2005)      
(Ho & Tseng, 2006)      
(Hsieh et al., 2007)       
(Tsai et al., 2008)      
(Henn & Wäscher, 2012)      
(Gue & Meller, 2014)       
(Saidi-Mehrabad et al., 2015)       
(Miyamoto & Inoue, 2016)       
(J. Zhang et al., 2016)Zhang, Wang and Huang (2016)       
(C. C. Lin et al., 2016)       
(Elbert et al., 2017)      
Mathematical Model (MM), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Ant Colony Algorithm (ACA), Particle Swarm
Optimization (PSO),Tabu Analysis (TA), Heuristic Algorithm (HA), Simulation Technique (ST)

9
 The design of the warehouses and assignment of items to the storage zone were

examined, and comparative solutions were published in the literature. Hausman,

Schwarz, & Graves (1976) applied two different assignment such as pallet assignment

and storage assignment. Afterwards, a full turnover-based storage assignment system

was improved for storage assignment by Graves, Hausman, & Schwarz (1977). Dichtl

& Beeskow (1980) dealt with assignment of goods into warehouse with the MDS.

Gross, Pinkus, & Soland (1979) presented a model to add capacity constraints, and

applied on different choices of warehouse locations at a strategic level. Hodgson &

Lowe (1982) defined an objective function which was included lot size and setup,

inventory and material handling costs. They developed an algorithm to find a locally

optimal solution for objective function with some constraints. Hark Hwang, Baek, &

Lee (1988) focused on an assignment problem with using clustering algorithms. In

addition to this, they improved the order picking policies with a heuristic approach.

Bozer & White (1990) dealt with the design of end-of-aisle order picking systems, the

objective of the paper is the minimization of the number of storage aisle. Also, they

added two different capacity constraint to the model.

Brynzér & Johansson (1995) interested in the design of a warehouse system

considering for the location of the order picking activity, works organization, picking

equipment and the information system. De Koster, Le-Duc, & Roodbergen (2007),

Heragu (2008) determined some factors such as number of blocks, length and width of

picking aisles, number and shape of cross aisle, level of rack and position of input and

output points (I/O) in warehouse design. Boza, Alemany, Alarcón, & Cuenca (2014),

Ramu (1996) built a decision support system for a warehouse management system with

using the results of a simulation study.

10
 Tang & Chew (1997) developed a travelling time model for considering

allocation of items in a rectangular warehouse system. They studied the effects of the

design of alternative warehouse and batch sizes on warehouse efficiency with using

results of the simulation. Additionally, there was another research that dealt with

allocation of items into a warehouse with using the simulation results obtained by Chew

& Tang (1999).

Montulet, Langevin, & Riopel (1998) compared the results of a MILP model

and turnover based algorithm for considering an average load time. C. J. Malmborg &

Altassan (1998) studied analytical models for the analysis of warehouse designing

policies. Their model consisted of the specific cases of dedicated warehouse to dispatch

items with using a cube per order index and the closest open location. Charles J.

Malmborg & Al-Tassan (2000) also developed a mathematical model for an order

picking for a cycle time for a single and a dual command order picking transactions.

C.-M. Liu, 2004; C. M. Liu (1999) developed a dynamic planning system that

was applied to the design of a warehouse and was tested order picking policies. A

binary quadratic assignment problem model was developed using similarity found

among types of items defined with an entry-order-quantity rule. Caron, Marchet, &

Perego (2000b) claimed that the warehouse layout had an effect of more than 60% on

the total picking travelling distance. Additionally, Caron, Marchet, & Perego (2000a)

measured the effect of warehouse layout by considering total picking distance using a

simulation approach.

H. S. Hwang & Cho (2006) were interested in warehouse design and operational

parameters such as warehouse size, rack size, number of transporters to evaluate system

performances in their study. Probabilistic demands and picking frequencies were

included in the evaluation of the model. Ruijter (2007) focused on an order picking

11
policy to design a tool to slot items into a picking area. An interaction frequency

quadratic assignment heuristic approach was proposed to find a balance between

placing of pairs of items with a high interaction frequency which required that they

were close to each other and also placing frequently ordered items not too far from the

depot. Relationships among groups of items were found using cluster-based slotting

methods.

Chow (2008) developed a software which measured order picking using a

Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) barcode that improved the warehouse

efficiency and responsiveness. Also, Hassan, Ali, Aktas, & Alkayid (2015) presented a

paper and they used RFID barcodes with Delphi study. Baker & Canessa (2009a)

surveyed the overall methodology of warehouse design in the current literature and

explained a step-by-step approach to warehouse design by considering storage and

pallet assignment. In their study, all pallets and storage addresses were assumed to have

the same type and size. They assumed pallet assignment to be insignificant and solved

the storage assignment problem that was based on the class-based turnover assignment

system. Kovács (2011) addressed the problem of storage assignment characterized for

multi-command order picking and served with using milk run logistics in a warehouse.

A Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model was proposed to find a class based storage

policy that minimized the criteria of the order cycle time and the average order picking

effort. Kutzelnigg (2011) dealt with the allocation of items with considering all

constraints found in a real-life setting which minimized average distance travelled. For

instance, it was crucial to avoid placing heavy items on fragile items. Poon, Choy, &

Lau (2011) presented a paper about order management system with using efficient

production material demands. Chiang, Lin, & Chen (2011) proposed an adaptive

approach (data mining based storage assignment) to find an optimal storage assignments

12
of goods into a distribution centre. Egas (2012) described a methodology that used a

clustering approach to determine a storage assignment.

Cil (2012) examined layout options using a sales data association measure to

create a category correlation matrix and MDS was applied to display the set of items

assignment in a supermarket. Ukpebor (2013) studied the objective of reducing the lead

time for ordering parts from a semi-conductor tool manufacturer warehouse. Chuang,

Chia, & Wong (2014) attempted to explore how to obtain a proper layout with an order

picking over randomized storage with using a datamining technique. J. C. H. Pan, Shih,

Wu, & Lin (2015) developed a GA based heuristic method to solve storage assignment

problem for a pick-and-pass system with multiple pickers. They aimed to determine the

appropriate storage place for each product and balance the workload of each picking

zone. Wutthisirisart, Noble, & Alec Chang (2015) adapted to create the Minimum Delay

Algorithm (MDA) to generate an item storage layout with minimize the total walking

distance of order pickers. Horta, Coelho, & Relvas (2016) proposed a mathematical

programming approach based on a formulation that returns the optimized layout of a

cross-docking warehouse. Che, Zhang, & Feng (2017) developed a bi-objective mixed

integer non-linear programming model for multi-floor facility layout. Calzavara, Glock,

Grosse, Persona, & Sgarbossa (2017) proposed an approach to analyse different

technical design options for order picking pallets from an economic as well as

ergonomic point of view. Battini, Glock, Grosse, Persona, & Sgarbossa (2016) proposed

an analysis of economic and ergonomic performance measures of different rack layouts.

We summarized these studies mentioned above in Table 2.

Table 2: Studies on warehouse designs

STUDY MM DSS HA DM MDS ST

(Graves et al., 1977; Hausman et al., 1976)      
(Gross et al., 1979)      
(Dichtl & Beeskow, 1980)      

13
(Hodgson & Lowe, 1982)      
(Hark Hwang et al., 1988)      
(Bozer & White, 1990)        
(Brynzér & Johansson, 1995)      
(Ramu, 1996)      
(Chew & Tang, 1999; Tang & Chew, 1997)      
(Montulet et al., 1998)      
(C. J. Malmborg & Altassan, 1998; Charles J. Malmborg, 2000)      
(C.-M. Liu, 2004; C. M. Liu, 1999)      
(Caron et al., 2000a, 2000b)      
(M.-C. Chen et al., 2005; M. C. Chen, Huang, Chen, & Wu, 2005)      
(H. S. Hwang & Cho, 2006; Hwang & Kim, 2005)      
(Ruijter, 2007)      
(Chow, 2008)      
(Baker & Canessa, 2009)      
(Kovács, 2011)      
(Kutzelnigg, 2011)      
(Chiang et al., 2011)      
(Egas, 2012)      
(Cil, 2012)      
(Chuang et al., 2014)      
(J. C. H. Pan et al., 2015)      
(Wutthisirisart et al., 2015)Wutthisirisart and Chang (2015)      
(Horta et al., 2016)      
(Calzavara et al., 2017)      
(Battini et al., 2016)      
Mathematical Model (MM), Decision Support Systems (DSS), Heuristic Algorithm (HA)
Data Mining (DM), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), Simulation Technique (ST)
It is also possible to note that with extensive survey studies in the literature

which cover order picking policies and warehouse designs options (René De Koster et

al., 2007; Gu, Goetschalckx, & McGinnis, 2007, 2010; Rouwenhorst et al., 2000; Sarker

& Babu, 1995; Schwarz, 1973).

Based on the literature on the subject, it can be said that order picking and

storage assignment play an important role for warehouse management. Many different

policies on picking orders and solution of storage assignment problems were studied to

managing warehouses.

In our study, the assignment problem was solved using a proposed mathematical

model and the MDS analysis. In this respect, this is a unique study in literature. This

study presented a hierarchical approach for solving problems of warehouse design

decision, storage assignment and being chosen picking strategies. This hierarchical

proposed approach was an important contribution to warehouse management. Our

14
model consisted of association rules’ data mining technique that were extracted from

demands.

The order picking policies were tested on different layout designs with using a

simulation method that we developed. We believe that this unique study proposed a new

approach consisting of a mathematical programming model, MDS, and association

rules. The design and assignment of a warehouse and order picking policies were

illustrated as an example of a real-life problem in our study. The performance of the

proposed approach was evaluated and validated using a simulation method and

statistical tests.

3. Warehouse management

In recent years, the importance of the logistics sector has increased with

corporate businesses desiring to obtain new markets. Production facilities are moved to

places where labour costs are relatively low. The change in production locations shall

also result in rising the distance among plants and customers. This brings about not only

the growth of warehouses, but also affects their efficient use in terms of reducing total

operational costs of items. Therefore, improvements in the design of warehouse

management systems have a potential to provide considerable gains in terms of

reducing cost for businesses.

The characteristics and structures of items, as well as industrial requirements,

play an important role in warehouse management. The items are stores under certain

rules and appropriate conditions. Customer orders are required to be delivered to the

correct addresses in an economical and appropriate way. Material movements in the

warehouse have limitations such as throughput time and capacity. All this important

issues should be taken in consideration in WMS.

15
 In a globalized business companies need to minimize costs of warehouse

operations in order to increase their competitiveness. Minimizing the operational costs

of a warehouse, not only warehouse design but also order picking policies, should be

investigated to produce more efficient systems. Warehousing and distribution

operations are the final stage of the production cycle. According to total management

philosophy, if problems occur in the warehouse, they may cause severe confusion in the

total item cycle.

The recent sectoral trends raise the importance of warehousing and better (or

more efficient) design of the warehouses are more crucial than it was before. For these

reasons, WMS needs to be developed more effective, productive and flexible ways.

4. The problem
In this study, we examined three popular warehouse problems; these are

warehouse design, storage assignment and order picking in a picker to parts refrigerated

warehouse. We aimed to produce appropriate solutions for the warehouse problems.

Firstly, we investigated the effectiveness of different warehouse design alternatives.

Secondly, we proposed a new mixed integer quadratic assignment model and the use of

the MDS for solving a storage assignment problem using association rules related to

customers’ consumption patterns. The routes from a large number of randomly selected

picking requests were sorted by integer linear model which based on vehicle routing

problem. Finally, we examined the effectiveness of the system performance with using

the developed simulation model for different warehouse design choices, alternative

solutions of assignment problems and order picking policies.

5. Methods

In this section, we briefly describe the methods that we have employed in our study, the

16
association rules and the MDS.

5.1. Association rules

Association rules are widely used in Market Basket Analysis (MBA) for marketing.

Association rules are if statements help uncover relationships between seemingly

unrelated data in a relational database or other information repositories. It was

developed with being used a data frequency analysis by (Agrawal, Imieliński, & Swami,

1993).

Support and confidence are used as criteria to identify relationships between

items for association rules. A support value indicates how frequently items appear in a

database (equation 1). The support value between two groups of items (A and B) are

found as the total order quantity for A and B in proportion to the total order quantity

(equation 2). A confidence value indicates the number of items collected together

(equations 3 and 4).

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

5.2. Multidimensional scaling (MDS)

The MDS was introduced by (Young & Householder, 1938) but its application was

initially restricted due to the limited computer technology. The MDS analysis translates

the relationship between items to a distance value in any dimensional scaling. A

Euclidean distance is preferred in most cases (Cil, 2012). The distance between points i

and j is defined as follows (Giguère, 2006).

17
 (5)

The MDS analysis can be divided into two groups, metric and nonmetric. The

metric is applied on databased that are quantitative and metric distances. However the

nonmetric is applied on a score, a row and category data. The metric MDS have been

used in this study because the involved datas’ relationships are all numeric variables.

The relationships of the items and the solution to the warehouse assignment problem

have been obtained by using the proposed MDS.

6. The Proposed Approach

In this study, we determined the missing time involved in the process from

creating customer orders at the warehouse to put across items to the staging area. We

designed alternative warehouse layouts with adding new tunnels, reorganized the

addresses of groups of items that contributed to the order picking process and improved

the order picking routes. We also evaluated performances of alternative warehouse

designs which based on our proposed simulation model.

Finally, we obtained certain conclusions with using statistical methods. The

proposed approach consisted of three stages as given in Table 3.

Table 3: The proposed approach

WAREHOUSE DESIGN We proposed a new design which modified an existing one.

I. STAGE

Confidence and support measures were obtained via a data mining

ASSOCIATION RULES
technique.

OBTAINING THE Relationships among items types was obtained with using the value of the
RELATIONSHIP MATRIX confidence and support.

18
 Relationships in relational matrix converted into distance measure onto
MDS
II. STAGE two-dimensional plane and assigned to addresses in the warehouse.

The objective function of the model assigned products into the slots with
MATHEMATICAL MODEL using the distances of items and relationships matrix minimized total
travel distance.
VEHICLE ROUTING Order picking routes were sorted in an attempt to minimize travel distance
PROBLEM(VRP) by VRP.
III. STAGE

Different scenarios were studied by using a simulation model according

SIMULATION
to different methods and routes on both of the warehouse designs.

T-tests based on simulation results were obtained to illustrate the

HYPOTHESIS TEST
effectiveness of the proposed approach.

7. A Case Study
We studied on the refrigerated warehouse of a company, has a customer portfolio

including grocery stores and supermarkets in the retail sector, applied on a case study in

Sakarya, Turkey. The warehouse where is 13200 square meters, involves in 11050

theoretical pallets capacity. Approximately 2500 Stock Keeping Units(SKUs) are stored

in warehouse and these products are divided 22 different types of items shown in Table

4.

Table 4: Name of items types in refrigerated warehouse

Items Types Items Types
1 Homogeneous Yogurt Type 1 12 Fruit Yogurt
2 Homogeneous Yogurt Type 2 13 Traditional Dessert
3 Glass Ayran with Case 14 White Cheese
4 Bottle Ayran 15 Cream
5 Pan Yogurt 16 Mild Cream Cheese
6 Pasteurized- Flavoured Bottle Milk 17 Glass Ayran without Case
7 Cup Yogurt 18 Butter
8 Export Products 19 Pasteurized - Flavoured Glass Milk
9 Cottage Cheese 20 Kashar Cheese
10 Jams and Honey 21 Process Cheese
11 Whole Yogurt 22 Industrial Products

Pallet trucks and forklifts transport the items inside the warehouse, order pickers

also drive forklifts when they pick the orders. An inbound truck comes to the warehouse

and items are downloaded from the trucks into the dock. Then, they are transferred to

19
the certain address inside the warehouse. Customer orders are picked from the addresses

and putting on a staging area and then ship to customers with an outbound trucks.

Customer orders are picked one by one from the addresses and are dispatched by heavy

trucks. Different types of items have been picked on a palette during the preparation of

orders in the warehouse.

We observe that there are several factors in the warehouse operations such as the

assigning of the items, picking order policies and the design of the warehouse which

affects the efficiency of the warehouse. Therefore, we have examined the effectiveness

of these factors on average picking order times and total distances travelled during the

picking of orders.

The problem also attempts to reduce order response time which is called total

processing time from picking the customer order in the system to preparing it for

delivery to customer. When an order is initially created in the WMS, an order picker

starts to collect the items according to the order form by the any forklift in the

warehouse. After a pallet is filled with items, it is moved to the order staging area. The

picking order is to continue with an empty pallet until all items of the order are picked.

Then the picking process may be started again for a new customers’ orders are

processed. Items in the order staging area are transferred to customers by a heavy truck.

Finally, we evaluated the storage assignment of 22 different types of items using

different methods for objectives of the decreasing average order picking time and total

travel distance and we determine of the appropriate route during the order picking

process.

20
 7.1. Stage I

7.1.1. Existing and Proposed Warehouse Designs

The items are stored on pallet racks in the refrigerated warehouse. There is a tunnel

between two parts of warehouse highlighted as yellow arrow mark, pallets are stored by

shelves side by side. The existing warehouse design shown in Figure 1.

In our case study, meetings were made with managers, staff members and

forklift drivers. With these meetings and contacts showed that forklift drivers wait each

other around tunnel. We observed that passing through from tunnel could be occurred a

bottleneck in this process.

Bottlenecks may occur in every process in manufacturing and distribution

companies. A bottleneck occurs when inputs come in faster than the next step can be

used them to create output in a process. Therefore, in a supply chain, a bottleneck have

an effect upon throughput, efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Bottleneck detection in manufacturing is usually simple. Monitoring assembly

line and determining production step where products pile up at a certain point, reveal

the bottlenecks easily. There are two types of bottlenecks; short-term bottlenecks and

long-term bottlenecks. Warehouses have hidden bottlenecks, the detection of

bottlenecks is harder than manufacturing processes. Analysing traffic flow is a

beneficial method for determining of bottlenecks in warehouses. Unblocking bottleneck

has two different ways in literature; increasing the efficiency of the bottleneck step and

decreasing inputs to the bottleneck step. Modifying the bottleneck machine or increase

the number of machine helps to unblock bottlenecks in a production facility.

In our example, seasonal effects and workload were effect usage of tunnel thus

bottleneck in tunnel did not clear away. All key findings showed that this is a long-term

bottleneck. Vehicle monitoring was selected a helpful method for detection of

21
bottleneck in this study. Vehicle monitoring created a bigger picture of vehicle journeys

over a period of time. By combining all routes of forklift drivers, the traffic of forklifts

were mapped. Vehicle monitoring supported the results of the meetings, the bottleneck

occurred in the tunnel for existing design of the warehouse.

In our case, two new tunnels were added in the proposed design shown in Figure

2. Therefore, new tunnels increased the efficiency of bottleneck step. Moreover,

placement of goods in warehouse were rearranged in stage 2. As a result of this, the

usage of tunnels were decreased.

Versions of both existing and proposed designs of the warehouse were

separately used for application of the order picking policies and the assignment of

items.

22
Figure 1: Existing design of the warehouse

23
Figure 2: Proposed design of the warehouse

24
 7.1.2. Preparation of data

Data which included customer orders, for 12 months period of warehouse, was used in

this study. The orders consisted of different amounts and different items’ types. Orders’

numbers in the raw data were clustered into 22 different items’ types being shown in

Table 4.

7.1.3. Association Rules

Association rules which is one of an essential methods for data mining, can be used to

determine purchasing or selling together in supermarkets. So that, this type of analyze is

called MBA. Using association rules for multi-order picking strategies allows us to

attain certain rules of association among items types in the warehouse. If items are

demanded together with high frequency, the relationship among them shall reach at the

higher confidence value. Do Items have a high relationship rate, they should be located

close to each other when placing items are assigned inside the warehouse. Also, İf an

item have high frequency, the support value of the item will increase. It should locates

close the staging area. We claim that average picking order time and distance travelled

may reduce.

7.1.4. Relationship Matrix

This matrix presents a relationship among items types by using confidence and support

values. The relationships association both each items types in the matrix are formed by

using confidence values. Moreover, the relationship between items types and staging

area are calculated from with support values. Additionally, the staging area of the

warehouse is defined as “0” in relationship matrix. If there are a relationship among the

items, they should be picked together. So that, we have an expectation to minimize

25
transport distances in warehouse with data mining. Relationships among the items types

are normalized between “0”and “1”. Being normalized section of the relationship matrix

is given at Appendix A.

7.2. Stage II

We examine 12 months orders, they have different types of items in an order, which are

demanded from the warehouse. The different amounts of items that are collected on a

pallet, pack and transport to the staging area during completion of the ordering process.

The normalized relationship matrix which is related to buying and selling of the items,

is indicated the relationships among items by previous data. As a result, the distance

travelled by forklifts are reduced.

7.2.1. Multidimensional Scaling Analysis

The MDS analysis is employed to base on the normalized relationship matrix.

According to correlations among the items, the positions of them on a two dimensional

scale is given in Figure 3. The figure also shows the relationship of each items types to

the door.

26
Figure 3: The MDS analysis results

The stress value and squared correlation coefficient (R2) were respectively

found as 0,147 and 0,92. These findings were in agreement with (Kruskal & Wish,

1978) study.

We placed the items to appropriate addresses on the proposed warehouse layout

with using two dimensional placements in which obtained from the MDS in Figure 4.

27
Figure 4: Placement in the proposed warehouse using the MDS

28
 Items with a high relationship rate were placed close to each other and items that

were ordered at a high rate, were positioned closer to the staging area in the warehouse

because they could be more frequently picked from the others.

7.2.2. A Mathematical Model

We revised the model which was developed by (C.-M. Liu, 2004) including the capacity

constraints, were given from equations (7) to equation (9) below. We formulated our

new model as a Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP), having minimized the objective

function with total distance travelling.

We solved the QAP to determine the assignment of items for two different warehouse

designs. The objective function of the model had four parameters which are Sif, Dij, Rj

and tj. The parameters for the QAP model which were obtained by having used the

normalized relationship matrix in section 7.1.4 and the distance of the stores. The

objective function of the model consists of two parts, these are picking of items at a

high rate and the frequency of items picking together in an order.

(7)
(8)
(9)

Decision variables of xij were binary variables that had a meaning to assign an

item to only a single address in equation (8). The capacity of the addresses was checked

29
in equation (9). If the required capacity for storing an item was larger than the area of

the address in the warehouse, the new assignment could not be permitted.

(10)
(11)
(12)

The objective function was re-organized into two parts, Z1 and Z2, in equations

(10) and (11). The variable min Z1 was employed to minimize the distance from one

item to the others during the order picking process. With the min Z2 variable, we aimed

to explain the relationships from items to staging area distance in the warehouse. The

variables min Z2 associated with the items together delivery frequency and the distance

from the addresses to the staging area. Equation (10) was multiplied by ½ which means

that min Z1 represented the relationship among the items because it was only one way.

So min Z2 was associated with the staging area, it was bidirectional.

Min Z1 was the assignment problem to force items to be placed close to each

other, whereas min Z2 was the travel distance for items to staging area. As a result of

these, items with a high confidence degree were so close to each other since the support

degree was high as well, they were placed close to the staging area. The total distance

was minimized during the period of transportation of items in the warehouse. The items

were assigned to the warehouse by using the mathematical model, it was given in Figure

5.

30
Figure 5: Assignment of items with Mathematical model into the warehouse

31
 7.2.3. Order Picking Route

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) generalizes the well-known capacitated traveling

salesman problem. The objective function of the VRP is given in the equation (13).

Here xij is a binary variables that describe the motion of items between points i and j. It

is assumed that each point in the route is visited only one. The rules of VRP are shown

both equations (14) and (15). Equation (16) presents the occupation formed around the

bottom. A tour starts from a delivery point and end set the same delivery point. The

model also block sub-tours moreover starting from a point and not ending at the staging

area with equation (16). The vehicle capacity of the orders is checked with equation

(17) (Dantzig, Fulkerson, & Johnson, 1954).

(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)
(17)

In our example, when an order list was formed, a staff member began to pick items

belong to the order list. The sequence of picking items in the order list was determined

by using the VRP.

It was clear that the sequence of the picking items was improved when a proper

method was applied to find a picking route. In our examination, orders were sorted to

use the model given in equations (13)-(17) taking into consideration a commercial

optimization programme.

32
 7.3. Stage III

Up to this point, the assignment and routing problems have been found in stages I and II

respectively. It is obvious that the implementation of the proposed solutions into the

warehouse design may produce a cost. Therefore, it was necessary to measure the

system performance to determine what gain or loss could occur. So, we applied a

simulation study to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical approach.

7.3.1. A simulation study

A simulation study was performed with using a commercial simulation package.

Customer orders, different warehouse designs, and assignment of items in the

warehouse were taken as inputs, on the other hand total distance, simulation duration,

the total waiting time of an order in the system, the average quantity of order in the

system, the average order picking time were chosen as outputs. 12 different scenarios

were generated to illustrate the effects of the warehouse design, assignment and the

order picking route in Table 5.

Table 5: Simulation scenarios

Scenario Warehouse Design Warehouse Assignment Order Route

1 Existing Design Existing Placement Random
2 Proposed Design Existing Placement Random
3 Proposed Design Existing Placement VRP

4 Existing Design Random Assignment Random

5 Proposed Design Random Assignment Random
6 Proposed Design Random Assignment VRP

7 Existing Design MDS Random

8 Proposed Design MDS Random
9 Proposed Design MDS VRP

10 Existing Design Mathematical Model Random

11 Proposed Design Mathematical Model Random
12 Proposed Design Mathematical Model VRP

33
 The existing placement, random assignment, MDS and mathematical model
were applied separately on the proposed and existing warehouse designs. Moreover, the
results of simulation for sorted orders were obtained with the VRP based on the
warehouse designs. The results are summarized in Table 6.

Table 6: Simulation results based on the storage assignments on performance criteria

Storage Assignment
Existing Random Mathematical
Performance Criteria MDS
Placement Assignment Model
Total Distance (meter) 52214 55378 51952 50786
Existing Design

Simulation duration (hours) 23.12 22.34 21.92 21.43

The Total Waiting Time of an Order in the System (min) 7.93 8.39 7.74 7.57
The Average Quantity of Order in the System (number) 953 996 924 903
The Average Order Picking Time (min) 1.542 1.602 1.506 1.472
Total Distance (meter) 41834 41834 39524 38042
Proposed Design

Simulation duration (hours) 17.18 17.11 16.39 15.97

The Total Waiting Time of an Order in the System (min) 5.35 5.32 4.95 4.81
The Average Quantity of Order in the System (number) 644 637 590 575
The Average Order Picking Time (min) 1.14 1.134 1.074 1.044
Total Distance (meter) 29403 29544 28678 27258
Proposed Design

Simulation duration (hours) 9.23 9.33 9.08 8.73

with VRP

The Total Waiting Time of an Order in the System (min) 3.16 3.30 3.02 2.15
The Average Quantity of Order in the System (number) 414.78 412.48 408.46 249.53
The Average Order Picking Time (min) 0.714 0.74 0.69 0.66

First of all, at the beginning of the study, picking all orders was required into 23

hours in existing design and placement of the warehouse. Then, different storage

assignment methods were applied in existing design. Simulation duration was decreased

nearly 2 hours by mathematical model so it was spent 21 hours for picking all orders.

Secondly, a proposed design was produced by adding new tunnels. Total distance was

decreased 10 km and picking all orders was spent nearly 17 hours for proposed design.

Storage assignments methods were applied on proposed design and results were shown

in table 6.

34
 The total waiting time of an order in the system was nearly 8 minutes at the

beginning, the total waiting time of an order was decreased to less than 5 minutes in

proposed design with mathematical model. Afterwards, VRP was used for rearranging

order sequence on routes. The total waiting time of an order was nearly 2 minutes with

proposed approach.

An order completion time was 1.47 at the beginning of study with using

mathematical model, it was decreased nearly 1 minute for proposed design without

using VRP. When we sorted order routes with VRP, it was decreased to 0.66 in the

warehouse.

Consequently, all performance criteria were gotten much more better results by

using the hierarchical proposed approach.

7.3.2 Hypothesis tests

Examination of the statistical results in evaluating certain confidence interval in an

academic study will increase the reliability of the results. In our example, the results

were repeated twenty-five times and the average values were reported. The simulation

results were tested both using a paired samples t-test and an independent samples t-test

to validate the hierarchical proposed approach.

The paired sample t-test was used to examine the differences between the

simulation results which were obtained for the same design under different assignments.

Table 6 showed the average of the differences between sorted order and random order

which the paired sample t-test was used.

Table 6 shows that the simulation results between two different warehouse

designs included item assignment which obtained with using the mathematical model,

35
the random model, the existing placement and the MDS. Moreover, the results indicate

that average variables were statistically and significantly different from each other.

Independent sample t-test was used to examine different design and different

placement policy. In these two cases, both warehouse designs and the approach used for

placement changing, so that an independent sample t-test was appropriately deemed to

be used. The results were obtained to prove the difference of averages with using an

independent sample t-test.

H0 = There is no difference among four different assignments

H1 = There is a meaningful difference among four different assignments

For the all hypothesis tests, P<0.001 at a 95% level of significance was

assumed. P<0.001 could be considered as significant based on the results obtaining for

the P value. As a results, there is enough evidence to reject H0 and to accept H1

hypothesis. By t-tests, the obtaining results with the simulation study statistically were

proved that are meaningfully different from each other.

8. Conclusion
In this study, we examined a refrigerated warehouse which supplied order requests from

supermarkets for testing our proposed hierarchical approach, in Sakarya, Turkey. We

proposed a new design with adding new tunnels in the warehouse. Whereas new tunnels

caused a construction cost, it raised the order picking efficiency. For designing

warehouse layout with using the method of vehicle monitoring, bottlenecks was

unblocked, nearly 10 km of total distance and 6 hours of picking time were decreased in

proposed placement in table 6. The total waiting time of an order in the system was

reduced 2.5 minute in proposed warehouse design. Then, it plunged down to nearly 3

minute with using VRP.

36
 The average order picking time was 1.542 minutes in existing placement, with

adding new two tunnels it decreased to 1.14 minute. It was 0.66 minute with proposed

approach.

We assigned items into warehouse separately using the MDS and the

mathematical model. Storage assignment with MDS reduced 2.3 km of total distance in

proposed design. Storage assignment with using mathematical model had better results

because of decreasing 3.8 km of total distance in the proposed design.

Although the average quantity in the system was 953 orders in the existing

design, our hierarchical proposed approach decreased it to 250 orders for the proposed

design using VRP. This will improve the system responsiveness so much.

Our hierarchical proposed approach reduced 25 km of total distance compared

existing and proposed design with VRP based on total distance criteria in this case

study.

Consequently, we solved a warehouse management problem using a hierarchical

approach. The performances’ comparisons on different techniques were observed in a

real life problem. We asserted that our study consisted of the proposed mathematical

model, the MDS and association rules which provided a unique contribution to design,

management and order picking policies literature.

We plan that the model can be revised for more product ranges and a meta-

heuristic technique can be implemented in the proposed hierarchal approach.

37
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Appendix A

Being normalized matrix of relationship between items types

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
0 0,084 0,056 0,053 0,06 0,048 0,074 0,032 0,067 0,052 0,053 0,044 0,051 0,05 0,064 0,042 0,037 0,042 0,031 0,021 0,017 0,012 0,008
1 0,084 0,063 0,06 0,071 0,053 0,078 0,033 0,072 0,058 0,066 0,043 0,056 0,051 0,071 0,046 0,041 0,047 0,032 0,023 0,018 0,012 0,007
2 0,056 0,093 0,072 0,066 0,053 0,088 0,031 0,073 0,053 0,054 0,04 0,051 0,049 0,06 0,046 0,04 0,046 0,03 0,022 0,022 0,007 0,005
3 0,053 0,091 0,073 0,08 0,057 0,081 0,032 0,062 0,053 0,058 0,045 0,048 0,049 0,068 0,044 0,038 0,04 0,025 0,021 0,021 0,002 0,008
4 0,06 0,1 0,062 0,075 0,062 0,08 0,029 0,065 0,054 0,055 0,044 0,046 0,05 0,073 0,044 0,037 0,04 0,026 0,02 0,021 0,01 0,005
5 0,048 0,087 0,059 0,062 0,073 0,087 0,036 0,074 0,053 0,049 0,047 0,055 0,051 0,066 0,038 0,042 0,04 0,028 0,014 0,018 0,014 0,005
6 0,074 0,088 0,066 0,06 0,064 0,059 0,033 0,087 0,055 0,064 0,046 0,049 0,054 0,069 0,043 0,036 0,039 0,035 0,022 0,012 0,015 0,003
7 0,032 0,089 0,057 0,057 0,056 0,059 0,08 0,072 0,056 0,056 0,047 0,06 0,06 0,065 0,043 0,032 0,047 0,034 0,007 0,002 0,016 0,004
8 0,067 0,089 0,061 0,056 0,057 0,055 0,095 0,033 0,062 0,065 0,043 0,061 0,054 0,068 0,045 0,042 0,041 0,033 0,021 0,002 0,012 0,007
9 0,052 0,095 0,058 0,057 0,062 0,052 0,079 0,034 0,08 0,06 0,043 0,057 0,055 0,071 0,046 0,046 0,045 0,031 0,014 0,007 0,007 0,003
10 0,053 0,099 0,055 0,058 0,059 0,044 0,085 0,031 0,079 0,056 0,049 0,047 0,052 0,069 0,046 0,036 0,039 0,034 0,025 0,019 0,008 0,01
11 0,044 0,081 0,051 0,056 0,058 0,053 0,076 0,033 0,065 0,05 0,062 0,073 0,062 0,074 0,048 0,041 0,045 0,037 0,023 0,008 0,002 0,002
12 0,051 0,092 0,056 0,052 0,054 0,055 0,072 0,036 0,08 0,058 0,052 0,064 0,065 0,063 0,047 0,037 0,044 0,038 0,017 0,005 0,005 0,01
13 0,05 0,082 0,053 0,053 0,057 0,051 0,078 0,036 0,071 0,055 0,057 0,054 0,065 0,079 0,045 0,036 0,043 0,029 0,02 0,005 0,017 0,013
14 0,064 0,091 0,052 0,058 0,067 0,051 0,08 0,031 0,071 0,057 0,059 0,051 0,05 0,063 0,053 0,036 0,045 0,033 0,024 0,019 0,002 0,008
15 0,042 0,09 0,061 0,057 0,062 0,046 0,076 0,031 0,071 0,055 0,059 0,05 0,056 0,054 0,081 0,042 0,047 0,026 0,022 0,003 0,005 0,007
16 0,037 0,089 0,058 0,054 0,057 0,055 0,069 0,025 0,072 0,061 0,051 0,046 0,049 0,048 0,06 0,046 0,054 0,037 0,029 0,014 0,013 0,013
17 0,042 0,094 0,062 0,053 0,056 0,049 0,069 0,035 0,065 0,055 0,052 0,048 0,054 0,053 0,07 0,048 0,05 0,043 0,022 0,012 0,005 0,005
18 0,031 0,085 0,053 0,044 0,05 0,045 0,084 0,033 0,072 0,051 0,06 0,053 0,062 0,048 0,069 0,036 0,047 0,026 0,005 0,007 0,012
19 0,021 0,093 0,061 0,057 0,059 0,037 0,079 0,009 0,069 0,037 0,067 0,051 0,042 0,051 0,074 0,046 0,054 0,044 0,039 0,009 0,015 0,009
20 0,017 0,106 0,084 0,08 0,087 0,065 0,087 0,006 0,072 0,055 0,072 0,051 0,016 0,055 0,087 0,014 0,004 0,018 0,002 0,018 0,018 0,002
21 0,012 0,146 0,013 0,003 0,019 0,022 0,123 0,013 0,14 0,01 0,026 0,003 0,013 0,14 0,157 0,029 0,029 0,019 0,029 0,016 0,026 0,026
22 0,008 0,367 0,013 0,027 0,027 0,06 0,007 0,007 0,02 0,02 0,02 0,053 0,033 0,047 0,06 0,047 0,053 0,027 0,033 0,007 0,033 0,04

51
Highlights

 Warehouse management was examined using Mathematical Model, MDS, Association rules.
 Sorting order picking routes based on VRP improves picker’s efficiency.
 Storage assignment should be made according to associations of goods.
 Warehouse managers should take into consideration customer’s consumption pattern.

52