Reduction in picking times orders for delivery in a national distribution center: A case study

Abstract

This case study evaluated the storage management of a consumer goods warehouse. There the cycle time to prepare an order was high (from 2 to 8 hours depending on the order type). The warehouse presented some inconveniences such as: long time to perform operations and great mobilization of people and products. Consequently, this study aims to: reduce order picking times and therefore reduce picking costs. The methodology used divided the study in two phases: current situation analysis, and improvement proposal which includes the results. During the first phase, problem solving tools were used to identify the main causes. Then, to develop the improvement proposal, a binary integer programing model was designed to present a new –more appropriate – configuration of the existing SKUs allocation within the warehouse considering type of products constraints (e.g. products belong to different families and products within a family have similar characteristics) and ABC classification. The results showed that an adequate configuration of the picking area resulted in decrease of personnel mobilization, reduction of picking times and reduction of operative cost associated with picking including cost of reverse logistics.