This work presents the effect, in terms of\r\ntravel distance and material handling time reductions,\r\nof an optimal rather than a uniform item allocation in\r\none-block picking warehouses, both with and without\r\nthe use of a simple picking heuristic. Since developing\r\nefficient product-location strategies represents a\r\ncritical issue in Operations Management, due to the\r\nimpact on warehouse performance in terms of both\r\nservice level and operation costs, this paper focuses on\r\nan effective quantification of obtainable travel time\r\nreductions, obtaining a significant result for\r\nmanufacturing companies aiming to determine the\r\nmost appropriate material handling resource\r\nconfiguration. Building on previous work on the effect\r\nof slot-code optimization on travel times in single/dual\r\ncommand cycles, the authors broaden the scope to\r\ninclude the most general picking case, thus widening\r\nthe range of applicability and realising former\r\nsuggestions for future research.
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