A Dynamic Storage Assignment for areplenishment warehouse

In a replenishment warehouse are a lot of different processes during a day. These processes should go as efficient as possible in order to limit the costs of a warehouse. Labour hours are a big part of the costs in a warehouse. The labour hours in the picking area of a warehouse depend mostly on travelling to the product locations. In this thesis a closer look will be given in the travelling distance of the pickers in the picking area. The Dynamic Storage Assignment (DSA) is developed to reduce the travelling distance of a picker. This storage assignment policy will be compared to two other polcies, namely the Systematic Storage Assignment (SSA) and the Storage Assignment by Demand (SAD). This study shows which of the three storage assignment policies gets the best results for three different datasets. 365 days are simulated in a warehouse with arriving products and order lists that have to be picked for ten different stores. This is simulated for each of the three policies for every dataset. The results of each storage assignment policy are compared to each other. From the results follow that the DSA is the best performing storage assignment policy of the three. Even though the DSA could have extra travel distances, because products can be relocated during their time in the warehouse. The DSA still managed to obtain the lowest travel distances in most of the instances of the datasets.