Abstract

Order picking, which is collecting a set of products from different locations in a warehouse, has repeatedly been described as one of the most laborious and time-consuming internal logistic processes. Each order is issued to pick some products located at given locations in the warehouse. In this paper, we consider an order picking problem, in which a number of orders with different delivery due dates are going to be retrieved by a limited number of order pickers in multiperiods such that the total tardiness is minimized. The aim is to determine a retrieval plan in terms of order batching and order picker multitrip routing as decision variables. Besides, products are arrived and replenished at the predetermined locations at different periods. Therefore, products sitting in those locations should be delivered soon to provide empty rooms for replenishment. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is proposed for this new problem. The model is optimally solved for small-size problems. For larger instances, grouping metaheuristic algorithms are proposed based on particle swarm optimization and the league championship algorithm that use group-based operators to generate reasonable batches of orders. Improvement heuristics are designed as well. The performance of the MILP formulation and metaheuristic algorithms is analyzed for different problem instances whose designs are based on real data gathered from an auto parts warehouse. Results indicate that our algorithms can stably solve large instances of the problem in a reasonable time.