Modeling Pick-Face Blocking in an Order Picking System

摘要

We develop analytical models to estimate blocking in an order picking system (OPS) that has picking aisles wide enough to allow pickers to pass other pickers in the aisle. In such OPSs pickers can experience blocking at a pick-face when two or more pickers need to pick at the same pick-face. Our models quantify the amount of picker-blocking in such aisles and confirm that blocking is less in wide aisles compared to that in narrow aisles. These values can be used to analyze trade-offs between wide-aisle and narrow-aisle OPSs in terms of space utilization and productivity reduction due to blocking.