Throughput analysis for order picking system with multiple pickers and aisle congestion considerations

Most of previous studies in picker-to-parts warehousing systems investigated only single-picker operations and are therefore adequate to evaluate order picking efficiency by travel distance as aisle congestion never takes place in such systems. In real world applications, the congestion inevitably occurs when a system has multiple pickers working together within the same region. This paper presents an approximation method based on a GI/G/1 closed queueing network by using self-correcting approximation technique algorithm to evaluate the throughput time of an order picking system with multiple pickers and aisle congestion considerations for different routing policies. The results generated by the proposed method are compared and validated via simulation model using eM-plant simulator for different sizes of warehouses. The results indicate that the approximation method appears to be sufficiently accurate for practical purposes. The sensitivity analysis of the throughput time with respect to order sizes, number of pickers and number of aisles are conducted and the performance of different item storage policies are also evaluated using the proposed approximation model.