An investigation of the effects of storage assignment and picker routing on the occurrence of picker blocking in manual picker-to-parts warehouses

Purpose Order picking is one of the most costly logistics processes in warehouses. As a result, the optimization of order picking processes has received an increased attention in recent years. One potential source for improving order picking is the reduction of picker blocking. The purpose of this paper is to investigate picker blocking under different storage assignment and order picker-route combinations and evaluate its effects on the performance of manual order picking processes. Design/methodology/approach This study develops an agent-based simulation model (ABS) for order picking in a rectangular warehouse. By employing an ABS, we are able to study the behaviour of individual order pickers and their interactions with the environment. Findings The simulation model determines shortest mean throughput times when the same routing policy is assigned to all order pickers. In addition, it evaluates the efficiency of alternative routing policies–storage assignment combinations. Research limitations/implications The paper implies that ABS is well-suited for further investigations in the field of picker blocking, for example, with respect to the individual behaviour of agents. Practical implications Based on the results of this paper, warehouse managers can choose an appropriate routing policy that best matches their storage assignment policy and the number of order pickers employed. Originality/value This paper is the first to comprehensively study the effects of different combinations of order picker routing and storage assignment policies on the occurrence of picker blocking.