Sales-Popularity-Driven Storage Location Layout Optimization for Fabric Warehouses

Abstract

Facing with the challenges of large number of SKUs, seasonality of demand and diverse order profiles in fabric warehousing logistics, this paper aims to optimize the storage location layout of fabric warehouse through analyzing historical orders data from warehouse management system (WMS) of a fabric warehouse in Humen, Dongguan. Firstly, according to the sales characteristic of multi-quartiles of SKUs, a warehouse zoning strategy combining high-popularity forward area and seasonal zoning is constructed. Secondly, an optimized algorithm based on neighborhood exchange strategy is used to allocate SKUs to the storage locations in each warehouse zone. Meanwhile, a simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to optimize the order picking route under the aisle constraints. Finally, simulation experiments based on real enterprise orders data are used to compare different storage location layout schemes. The experimental results show that the proposed method can improve the warehouse operation efficiency. Compared with the original layout scheme, the proposed strategy can reduce the average picking distance of each order by 27.47 m, and the average order processing time is reduced by 12.29 s. The experimental results verify the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed optimization method in fabric warehousing logistics.