Evaluating the benefits of picking and packing planning integration in e-commerce warehouses

Shuya Zhong, Vaggelis Giannikas, Jorge Merino, Duncan McFarlane, Jun Cheng, Wei Shao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (SciVal)
129 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Motivated by recent claims on the potential value of integration in warehouse management, this study evaluates the benefits arising from integrating the planning of order picking and packing processes in e-commerce warehouses. A set of research questions are proposed for exploring various benefits under different operational conditions and an experimental study is designed to answer them. In order to have a concrete model to represent the integrated planning method, a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is developed, and then compared against a non-integrated variation. The experimental study makes the comparisons by analysing the collected empirical data from a real-life warehouse. Our findings indicate that integrated picking and packing planning can yield improved performance in different aspects under different configurations of objectives, order quantities, order categories or workforce allocation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)67-81
Number of pages15
JournalEuropean Journal of Operational Research
Volume301
Issue number1
Early online date2 Oct 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Aug 2022

Funding

We acknowledge Shenzhen YH Global Supply Chain Co, Ltd. for supporting this research financially, and for providing access to their operations and expertise. We also thank Dr Wenrong Lu, Dr Philip Woodall, Dr Dimitris Zissis and Dr Alena Puchkova for their help.

Keywords

  • E-commerce
  • Integration
  • Logistics
  • Order picking and packing
  • Warehousing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science
  • Modelling and Simulation
  • Management Science and Operations Research
  • Information Systems and Management

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