Order picker routing in warehouses: A systematic literature review

Order picking has often been described as one of the most labor- and time-consuming internal logistics processes. In manual picker-to-parts order picking systems, order pickers often spend a significant amount of time on travelling through the warehouse to reach storage positions where required item...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of production economics 2020-06, Vol.224, p.107564, Article 107564
Main Authors: Masae, Makusee, Glock, Christoph H., Grosse, Eric H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Order picker routing
Order picking
Routing policy
Systematic literature review
Warehousing
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Summary:Order picking has often been described as one of the most labor- and time-consuming internal logistics processes. In manual picker-to-parts order picking systems, order pickers often spend a significant amount of time on travelling through the warehouse to reach storage positions where required items are stored. To reduce the cost of order picking, researchers have developed various optimal and heuristic routing policies in the past. This paper presents the results of a systematic review of research on order picker routing. First, it identifies order picker routing policies in a systematic search of the literature and then develops a conceptual framework for categorizing the various policies. Order picker routing policies identified during the literature search are then descriptively analyzed and discussed in light of the developed framework. The paper also derives insights into the frequencies of usage of the different routing policies available in the literature and applies a citation analysis to identify seminal works that shaped the literature on order picker routing. The paper concludes with an outlook on future research opportunities.
ISSN:0925-5273
1873-7579
DOI:10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.107564