Order-Picking in a Rectangular Warehouse: A Solvable Case of the Traveling Salesman Problem

1983/06/01 by H. Donald Ratliff, Arnon S. Rosenthal, Arnon Rosenthal · 7 citations
Engineering · #Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization #Optimization and Packing Problems #Scheduling and Optimization Algorithms

paper · doi:10.1287/opre.31.3.507

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of order-picking in a rectangular warehouse that contains crossovers only at the ends of aisles. An algorithm is presented for picking an order in minimum time. The computational effort required is linear in the number of aisles. The procedure has been implemented on a microcomputer A 50-aisle problem requires only about 1 minute to solve.

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• A note about a transition of Ratliff and Rosenthal's order picking algorithm for rectangular warehouses
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• Double Traversals in Boundary Subaisles: Implications for Two-Block Layouts