The Research On Order Picking System Design Method

The operation of order picking system plays an extremely important role for the effectiveness of the overall logistics system. Although there are automated orders picking system being used by some distribution centers, due to the high investment and low flexibility of automated order picking system, manual order picking is still meaningful for some industries. This paper will solve the problem of manual order picking system design.Firstly, based on the theory of reductionism and wholism, this paper raises a two-stage design method:(1) to solve the design problems of layout, storage equipment selection and space assignment, a optimal total cost model should be built on the assumption of fixed order picking operation elements; (2) to solve the order picking operation decisions, a simulation model should be built with known layout out and storage equipment. According to the two-stage design methodology, an order picking system design process is configured after drawing good ideas from literature and suggestions from field interview.Secondly, a global optimal total order picking cost model is built to evaluate storage equipment and space assignment alternatives and this model is used for manual picking system, including storage equipment cost, space cost, picking cost and replenishment cost. And a huristic algorithm is designed to solve the model and an example of manual small part picking system is given to apply the solving algorithm.Finally, a simulation model of pick routing and storage rules is built and Mont-Carlo software is utilized to realize the simulation program to analyze the impacts of routing strategies and storage rules on walking distance during picking under different sizes of orders. And the optimal hybrid strategy is identified according to the simulation result analysis.