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Emerald Article: A framework for the design of warehouse layout Mohsen M.D. Hassan

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To cite this document: Mohsen M.D. Hassan, (2002),"A framework for the design of warehouse layout", Facilities, Vol. 20 Iss: 13 pp. 432 - 440 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02632770210454377 Downloaded on: 27-04-2012 References: This document contains references to 27 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 2 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 6763 times.

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A framework for the design of warehouse layout

Mohsen M.D. Hassan

Introduction
The process of designing a warehouse has not enjoyed a similar attention in the literature to determining the arrangement of items in storage, or devising a picking scheme as one may conclude from the review in van den Berg (1999). An important aspect of designing a warehouse is its layout. The design of the layout should address several issues besides the assignment of items to storage locations in order for a warehouse to be able to support its operations. Thus, it should also be concerned with the arrangement of the functional areas of the warehouse, determining the number and location of docks and input/output (I/O) points, determining the number of aisles, their dimensions, and orientation, estimating space requirements, designing the flow pattern, and forming picking zones. Designing the layout of a warehouse is a complex task for several reasons, among them the following. First, the number of design decisions is large and many of them are combinatorial problems that are difficult to solve optimally. Second, many operations (e.g. picking, dual command, cross docking, and value added services) and factors (e.g. demand, physical characteristics of items and unit loads, serving global markets, material handling, and just-in-time (JIT)) impact travel time, material handling cost, and throughput in a warehouse. Such operations and factors should be accounted for in a comprehensive design of warehouse layout in order that it can support them (without resorting to frequent modifications), which will complicate the design. Third, the aforementioned operations and factors interact and such interaction should be accounted for in the design. The framework suggested herein accounts for major design requirements needed in order for a warehouse layout to support operations. Its steps and actions are drawn from applications and studies from the literature of both academicians and practitioners. A framework for designing warehouse layout could fill a gap in the literature since a formal way for accomplishing this task is in general absent from it (Yoon and Sharp, 1996). The framework in Apple (1977) deals with the design of facilities in general. Other design procedures that have been suggested in the literature do not address the overall layout of

The author Mohsen M.D. Hassan is Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bahrain, Isa Town, Bahrain. Keywords Design, Layout, Warehousing, Commercial property Abstract This paper presents a framework for the design of warehouse layout to organize the design process, facilitate the task of designers, and highlight important design issues to help warehouse managers make informed decisions. The framework accounts for several factors and operations of warehousing in the design, and addresses design decisions required to respond to them. It attempts to develop a layout that has several characteristics such as modularity, adaptability, compactness, accessibility, flexibility, and distribution of movement to enable it to respond to changing conditions, improve space utilization, and reduce congestion and movement. Electronic access The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-2772.htm

Facilities Volume 20 . Number 13/14 . 2002 . pp. 432440 # MCB UP Limited . ISSN 0263-2772 DOI 10.1108/02632770210454377

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A framework for the design of warehouse layout

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a warehouse. For example, the procedure in van den Berg (1999) presents four steps for planning storage locations. The procedure in Yoon and Sharp (1996) is concerned with analysis and design of order picking systems in general and does not address the layout. Designers also have to rely on formal means to assist them in the design rather than follow ad hoc procedures as observed in Yoon and Sharp (1996), and it would be helpful to them if effective approaches and concepts are identified and presented to them for use. Further, warehouse managers responsible for approving the design should be familiar with important issues in warehouse layout to help them make sound decisions. The suggested framework can fulfil both roles and facilitate the task of designers and managers.

Steps of the framework

The ordered steps of the framework are listed below and a description of them is given in the following subsections: (1) Specifying the type and purpose of the warehouse. (2) Forecasting and analysis of expected demand. (3) Establishing operating policies. (4) Determining inventory levels. (5) Class formation. (6) Departmentalization and the general layout. (7) Storage partition. (8) Design of material handling, storage, and sortation systems. (9) Design of aisles. (10) Determining space requirements. (11) Determining the number and location of I/O points. (12) Determining the number and location of docks. (13) Arrangement of storage. (14) Zone formation. The importance of each step and its relationship to other steps of the framework are mentioned in the discussion. Further, remarks on the steps are given near the end of the paper. Specifying the purpose and mission of the warehouse The type of the warehouse, i.e. whether it is a distribution center, a manufacturer

warehouse, or a public warehouse should be specified to provide designers with an initial conception of the expected levels of operations and requirements of the design. For example, throughput is not important in a public warehouse, and ignoring it should facilitate the design. Space utilization on the other hand is important therein and maximizing it should be a concern in its design and operation. Another example is the selection of an assignment policy, which would also be impacted by the purpose of a warehouse. For example, randomized storage may be used in a public warehouse, whereas other assignment policies may better suit other types of warehouses in order to facilitate picking. The objectives of the warehouse and their priorities, whether it will serve global markets, and whether it would perform value added services may also be addressed in this step since they impact subsequent steps of the design. Forecasting and analysis of demand This step is required for setting the capacity of the warehouse and preparing information which would be used in subsequent steps in determining inventory levels, equipment, and assignment of items to storage locations. It includes estimating and identifying the following: (1) high and low demand items; (2) trends and changes in demand pattern and mix; (3) percentage of items which could be ordered in full and partial loads; (4) variations in the demand; (5) percentage of demand for domestic and global markets; (6) identification of seasonal items, and the timing of their peaks and lows; and (7) volume of orders. Examples of the usefulness of such information in the design include the following: the estimate in (1) would be used in making storage assignment decisions, the estimate in (3) would be useful in making decisions on handling requirements and storage methods, and the estimate in (5) would help in deciding whether each of the domestic and global markets should be served from separate segments in a warehouse. Forecasting and analysis of demand also affect operations, which in turn reflects on

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design. For example, when the number of orders is expected to be large but order size is small, a warehouse could resort to batching for picking items from storage locations. Items expected to be in the same batch could in turn be placed in adjacent or close locations. Characteristics of items regarding contamination, odour, or hazard may also be studied in this step. This information would be used to avoid placing such items adjacent to other items and to isolate them in separate areas. Similarly, complementary items and items that could be in the same kit or bill of materials should be identified. Such items would be frequently ordered together, and thus should be placed adjacent or in close locations in storage in order to reduce pick time and distances. The analysis performed in this step may also include projecting trends and advances in warehousing in order that provisions are made in the layout to render it capable of accommodating them if they are implemented later on. For example, expecting an increase in the volume of value added services would motivate a warehouse to provide extra space for performing them. Establishing operating policies Operations in a warehouse have to be investigated since they impact the design of the layout. One operational issue that has to be addressed early in the design is determining whether to operate the warehouse as several small independent warehouses. Such an approach has been advocated in Harmon (1993) and implemented in real warehouses (see for example, Auguston, 1996a). In this manner a warehouse can, for example, serve global and local markets independently and efficiently since the demand and requirements (e.g. packaging) of both markets could necessitate storing items for each market separately. It also helps avoid order mix up and interference of operations, which could occur if a warehouse is operated as one unit that serves various markets. The various activities performed in a warehouse and their sequence, should also be identified to help in developing the layout. The conditions under which each operational policy will be used, and when to switch to another policy also have to be investigated in order to identify design requirements that can

meet them. For example, if the number of orders becomes large but order size is small, batching could be used in picking. In this case, items that could be in the same batch would be stored in adjacent locations and picked together. A decision should also be made as to whether to store items individually or in classes. The assignment of items to storage locations would then be made using the characteristics of items or classes to be able to accommodate the operations of each. For example, if classes are formed, the elements of a class that could be ordered together should be assigned adjacent storage locations. Further, assignment policies (dedicated or randomized) should be selected at this time even though assignment of items to locations would be performed later in the design. Such a decision affects inventory levels and space requirements (see Tompkins et al., 1996), and thus should be initiated early in the design. A decision on the number and size of picking waves per day should be made at this step based on expected volume of operations. This decision affects the size of the sortation system needed and the required space to accommodate it. It should be pointed out that several of the decisions made in this step rely on information from the previous step on forecasting and analysis of demand. Determining inventory levels Determining inventory levels for the various items stored in a warehouse is also an operational decision that impacts its size and helps in estimating space requirements. Inventory decisions rely on forecasting and analysis of demand. Consequently, variability in the size and timing of the demand caused by various ordering policies by customers complicates the decisions made in this step. Inventory decisions also affect subsequent steps on space allocation and storage assignment, and may have to be considered simultaneously with them. In this case, several scenarios of inventory levels and storage assignment may have to be evaluated (see e.g. Malmborg and Deutsch, 1988) in order to obtain reasonable estimates of inventory levels. Class formation This step would be performed if a decision is made earlier to use classes. Using classes

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helps reduce picking time and distance. Further, distributing them over a wide area of a warehouse helps reduce congestion particularly if popular items are not allocated to one class but are distributed among several ones. Classes are formed for items based on their demand, physical characteristics, compatibility, or geographic destination. Approaches to accomplish such tasks include similarity coefficients (Hwang and Lee, 1988), correlation measures (Frazelle and Sharp, 1989), and coding (Brynzer and Johansson, 1996). Departmentalization and the general layout A warehouse consists of several departments or areas that would be identified and arranged in this step using information from the first and third steps of the framework. The main departments of a warehouse correspond to its major functions such as receiving, storage, packing, sortation, and shipping. Further, some of the functions in warehouses, such as value added services are new and could require their own departments, and thus consideration has to be given to them when departmentalization is performed. The number and size of departments could be reduced if several functions are performed in one department. For example, packing of small units may be performed at picking stations rather than at a packing department. Similarly, orders may be verified at the stations preparing them rather than at a verification station, and receiving and shipping may be performed by one department. Once departmentalization is accomplished, the general arrangement of departments in a warehouse could be established as in a flow shop layout. This layout type suits a warehouse since the majority of items passing through it require the same operations and thus follow the same sequence (see Figure 1). The flow shop arrangement allows related departments, e.g. receiving and storage, or packing, sortation, and shipping, to be placed adjacent, which helps reduce travel distance and time. It also has a simple flow pattern (U shape, circular, straight line, or serpentine), which is conducive to efficient operations. The location of offices and secondary departments in a warehouse such as maintenance and computer could be

Figure 1 An example of warehouse layout as a flow shop

determined after developing the arrangement of primary departments. The arrangement of equipment within some departments such as packing has also to be determined and could follow a flow or job shop layout. The arrangement of items within storage is also required and will be addressed in a subsequent section. Storage partition Storage is the major department in a warehouse. It is usually partitioned into reserve and picking areas to facilitate operations, reduce movement, and account for factors such as the demand, and size and type of unit loads. The items allocated to each area and their quantities could be determined using various procedures (see e.g. Ballou, 1967, and van den Berg, 1999). Each of the two areas may in turn be partitioned further into sub areas based on demand and unit load size. For example, the reserve area may be partitioned into sub areas for separate storage of pallets and cases. Similarly, the picking area could be partitioned into sub areas corresponding to small and large items, or to fast, medium, and slow moving items. Some sub areas could be operated independently or used for special purpose such as direct bulk shipping (see e.g. Johnson and Lofgren, 1994). Design of material handling, storage and sortation systems The design of material handling, sortation and storage systems is a major activity in its own right. However, it should be accounted for in the design of warehouse layout due to its interrelation with aisles, space

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requirements, utilization of the cube, storage assignment, and movement in the warehouse. Consequently, this step may not be finalized until several subsequent steps are completed and there could be various iterations between them. Further, it is related to the general flow pattern determined previously. The decisions made at this step are numerous and include determining storage method, depth of storage, the type and dimensions of unit loads, the type, number, and capacity of handling equipment, and the assignment of equipment to particular areas of the warehouse. Determining the dimensions of racks, and the number of bins and their numbering system are also required decisions. Further, the design of conveyor paths, the selection of a sortation system, determining its location, designing its flow system, as well as specifying the level of mechanization of all equipment should be performed at this step. Designers could enhance operations of a warehouse and reduce space requirements by selecting compact equipment. For example, a large sortation system may be replaced by several small systems placed at various regions of the warehouse. Further, narrow aisle trucks help reduce aisle space. Design of aisles Determining the number of aisles, their location, orientation, length, and width is an important step in designing a warehouse layout due to its impact on space needs, operations, material handling, and storage assignment. For example, a short aisle could be covered by only one picker thereby eliminating congestion which could arise when more than one picker is assigned to a long aisle. Narrow aisles allow picking from both sides of an aisle at each stop in a picking tour, whereas wide aisles allow picking to occur from one side of an aisle at a time to avoid crossing the width of the aisle several times. Further, long aisles would be suitable when movement occurs in a fixed path with no turns such as in an AS/RS, and short aisles are suitable when movement is performed by mobile equipment such as trucks. Thus, this step is strongly related to layout, design of material handling system, and storage assignment steps. There are tradeoffs involved in making the decisions for aisle design. For example, using a large number of aisles consumes valuable space whereas using a small number of them causes congestion

and delays, and designers have to decide whether large space or congestion should be avoided. The aisles in a warehouse do not have to be identical or lied out in the same manner but could have different orientation. Main aisles crossed by other aisles could also be used to improve routing flexibility, accessibility, and picking time and distance in a warehouse. Determining space requirements An estimate of space needs for the warehouse is made at this step. The cost of land, overhead, and sometimes scarcity of land necessitate making such an estimate carefully. A wrong estimate of space needs could lead to crowded conditions on the one hand or wasted space on the other hand. Space requirements in a warehouse depend on various factors, among them inventory levels, number and size of aisles, departmentalization, the type, number, and size of storage equipment, depth and height of storage, and the size of the sortation system. Further, some operational policies of a warehouse could impact space requirements and thus should be known and assessed during its determination. For example, procuring items from quality and certified suppliers reduces the space that would be needed at receiving for inspection of incoming items. Similarly, adhering to principles of receiving (Tompkins et al., 1996) such as cross docking, direct put-away to storage, and staging at storage locations reduces space needs at receiving. Thus, many factors have to be accounted for in space determination and information related to them from preceding design steps has to be utilized. The variability of demand and the revision that may be made to design decisions that precede space determination necessitate preparing several scenarios for space requirements. Further, limitations on available space may necessitate reallocating it among competing entities of the layout. Some of the previously made decisions may be finalized after space needs are determined. For example, the step of departmentalization could be elaborated now by determining the final shape and dimensions of the layout and its departments. Further, revision of decisions on height of storage and capability of lifting equipment could be made as a consequence of space determination and limitations.

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Determining the number and location of I/O points The number and location of I/O points impact throughput, picking distance and time, the assignment of items to storage, and congestion. I/O points are needed for departments, sortation systems, aisles, and equipment such as conveyors, carousels, and AS/RS. Thus, this step would be performed after the arrangement of departments, design of aisles, and selection and location of equipment have been made in previous steps. I/O points may be placed at various locations such as the middle of bays, as well as at both their ends in order to improve accessibility and reduce movement (see Figure 2). Further, their location should be considered relative to the flow pattern of the layout in order to maintain its simplicity. Determining the number and location of docks Having several docks in a warehouse is necessary in order to accommodate various transportation modes, reduce delays, and provide routing flexibility in it. Further, they help reduce congestion, facilitate frequent shipping, and allow cross docking to be performed without interference with receiving and shipping operations. Many of these benefits would be lost if the number of docks is small. Docks may be distributed over several sides of a warehouse (Smith and Tompkins, 1982). However, their location should in general be related to the general flow pattern in order to organize movement in it. For example, a straight line flow pattern would require placing receiving and shipping docks at opposite sides of a warehouse (Figure 1), whereas a U shape flow pattern would necessitate placing them at the same side. The
Figure 2 Placement of I/O points at both ends of an aisle

location of docks should also ensure balanced distribution of movement within, as well as outside, the warehouse. Arrangement of storage The assignment of items to storage locations is an important step in the design of a warehouse due to its impact on movement time and cost, throughput, productivity of pickers, and congestion. For example, congestion increases with turnover-based assignment in comparison to other assignment rules (Ruben and Jacobs, 1999). Consequently, rules for the assignment of items to storage locations have to be carefully selected so that they can support the operations of a warehouse and help it achieve its objectives. The decisions required in this step are made for items and classes in both the reserve and picking segments of storage and include: . determining the location of storage equipment in the picking and reserve areas; . the assignment of items and classes to storage locations relative to I/O points or to each other; and . the arrangement of items within each class. The assignment decisions rely on information from previous steps concerned with analysis of demand, class formation, departmentalization, storage partition, and design of storage system. Several principles should be observed when the items are assigned to locations. For example, highly demanded items or classes should not be stored in one place in order to reduce congestion. Further, items or members of a class that are likely to be ordered together should be arranged relative to each other and located in adjacent or close locations to economize movement. In all

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arrangements made relative to I/O points, the items or classes designated for global and domestic markets should be located relative to the I/O points or docks serving the particular market. It is also important to isolate flammable and odour producing items from the rest of the items in storage (see e.g. the layout in Auguston (1996b)) to reduce hazard and prevent contamination. Various assignment policies may be used simultaneously throughout a warehouse or within an area of it. Consider, for example, the picking and reserve areas. Items in the picking area may be arranged using dedicated storage whereas items in the reserve area could be assigned to locations using randomized storage. Similarly, the picking area could apply dedicated storage for fast moving items and randomized storage for slow moving items, i.e. a hybrid storage (White, 1980). The used assignment policy does not have to be permanent and could be switched to another policy when conditions warrant making such a switch. Thus, dedicated storage could be switched to randomized storage for some items when more storage space is needed. Further, the assignment of items could be switched to be relative to I/O points rather than to each other (or vice versa) when the demand of some items changes. The location of items or classes in storage locations is not permanent. That is, it could be interchanged after designing the layout in order to improve movement cost (see e.g. Malmborg, 1995). Further, shared storage, where various items occupy the same location in succession, may be used when reduction in both space and travel time is desired (see e.g. Goetschalckx and Ratliff, 1990). Zone formation Zone formation involves partitioning the picking area or part of it into zones where a picker picks only from an assigned zone. It is an example of modularity that could help improve picking and flexibility of operations. The number, size, and composition of zones are variables that should be carefully determined in order to avoid increasing movement and picking time. Consider, as an example, zone size. If it is small it could increase inter zonal movement that may be needed to complete an order. If on the other hand it is large, it could increase intra zonal movement. The composition of zones does not have to be permanent, that is it could be changed to reflect changing conditions.

Remarks
Table I includes examples of design actions in the framework that have been implemented in actual warehouses or addressed in research efforts. Table II summarizes some characteristics of the layout achieved through the steps of the framework that facilitate operations of a warehouse. Figure 3 illustrates the layout of a storage that possesses some of these characteristics. The layout has multiple docks distributed at several sides of the warehouse, stores various item types in each bay, and places each item in several adjacent bays. The layout provides routing flexibility since an item could be picked from one of several bays. It also speeds batching since batches of different compositions could be picked simultaneously, each from a particular bay, and prevents interference of pickers with each other. The layout is modular since the items in a bay may be replaced by other items without altering the arrangement or composition in the rest of the bays. Many of the steps of the framework represent major activities in their own right. Although Steps 1-4 of the framework do not address the layout itself, they are integral steps of it since they provide significant information for subsequent steps. Step 8 might be performed separately from developing the layout but it has to be accounted for in its design due to its interaction particularly with Steps 7, 9, and 10. Many of the steps of the framework could be revisited during the operations of a warehouse, particularly Steps 2, 4, 5, 13, and 14, and could be performed frequently due to the dynamic nature of the demand. Step 13 could require making physical modifications in the layout. When a layout is revised, it should maintain the simplicity of the flow pattern intact since it is conducive to streamlining warehouse operations and organizing movement in it. Zone formation which would also be performed frequently in a warehouse in response to varying conditions does not require physical changes in the layout. It should also be pointed out that a design decision might have to be finalized at a subsequent step to the one that initiated it. For example, upper bins in racks could be used as a reserve area and such a decision may be initiated during storage partition. However, it has to be finalized at a later step when decisions that impact it, such as

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Table I Examples from the literature on implementing design actions in warehouse layout Design action Demand forecasting Class-based assignment Related items adjacent Location relative to I/O points Research references Sadiq et al. (1999) Hwang and Lee (1988) Brynzer and Johansson (1996) Brynzer and Johansson (1996) Brynzer and Johansson (1996) Practitioners references Frazelle and Sharp (1989) Frazelle and Sharp (1989) Johnson and Lofgren (1994), Auguston (1995), Kallina and Lynn (1976), Witt (1995)

Location exchange Partition of the warehouse Partition of storage Multiple I/O points Zones Receiving adjacent to reserve Inventory Simple flow Docks at various sides

Sadiq et al. (1999), Malmborg (1995) Ashayeri et al. (1983) Auguston (1996a) Ballou (1967) Kaylan and Medeiros (1988) Gray et al. (1992) Gould (1996), Krepchin (1992) Auguston (1995) Malmborg and Deutsch (1988) Auguston (1995) Smith and Tompkins (1982)

Table II Characteristics of warehouse layout achieved by the framework Characteristic Modularity Adaptability Compactness Distribution of movement Accessibility Flexibility Design action Departmentalization class-based assignment zones storage partition Storage partition multiple docks and I/O points class-based-assignment zones Short aisles small equipment Randomized storage multiple docks and I/O points locating an item in several adjacent bays Multiple docks and I/O points locating an item in several adjacent bays Multiple docks and I/O points locating an item in several adjacent bays zones short aisles storage partition

Figure 3 Layout of storage that facilitates operations in a warehouse

selection of material handling equipment, and determining the dimensions of racks and space requirements are made. Consequently, the interrelation of decisions would necessitate visiting the steps of the framework several times.

Bypassing some steps of the framework could be detrimental to the layout. Each step has its importance, as pointed out earlier, and ignoring any of them could lead to crowded conditions, long times, high material handling cost, low throughput, and frequent changes in the layout.

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Summary
This paper presents a general framework for the design of warehouse layout to organize the design process, facilitate the task of designers, and highlight important design issues to warehouse managers to help them make informed decisions. The framework is unique to warehouse layout since it accounts for several factors and operations of warehousing in the design, and addresses design decisions required to respond to them. It is concerned with the arrangement of functional areas, number and location of docks and I/O points, aisle system design, flow pattern, space requirements, and assignment of items to storage locations. Further, it attempts to develop a layout that has several characteristics such as modularity, adaptability, compactness, accessibility, flexibility, and distribution of movement to enable it to respond to changing conditions, improve space utilization, and reduce congestion and movement. The framework is derived from analysis of layouts, studies, and cases from the literature of both academicians and practitioners.

References
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Goetschalckx, M. and Ratliff, D.H. (1990), ``Shared storage policies based on duration of stay of unit loads'', Management Science, Vol. 36 No. 9, pp. 1120-32. Gould, L. (1996), ``Pick-to-light system cuts incomplete orders by 50 percent'', Modern Materials Handling, Vol. 51 No. 10, pp. 42-4. Gray, A.E., Karmarkar, U.S. and Seidmann, A. (1992), ``Design and operation of an order-consolidation warehouse: models and application'', European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 14-36. Harmon, R.L. (1993), Reinventing the Warehouse, The Free Press, New York, NY. Hwang, H. and Lee, M. (1988), ``Order batching algorithms for a man-on-board automated storage and retrieval system'', Engineering Costs and Production Economics, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 285-94. Johnson, M.E. and Lofgren, T. (1994), ``Model decomposition speeds distribution center design'', Interfaces, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 95-106. Kallina, C. and Lynn, J. (1976), ``Application of the cubeper-order index rule for stock location in a distribution warehouse'', Interfaces, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 37-46. Kaylan, A. and Medeiros, D.J. (1988), ``Analysis of storage policies for miniload AS/RS'', Engineering Costs and Production Economics, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 311-18. Krepchin, I.P. (1992), ``Smart handling costs little, saves a lot'', Modern Materials Handling, Vol. 47 No. 12, pp. 54-6. Malmborg, C.J. (1995), ``Optimization of cube-per-order index warehouse layouts with zoning constraints'', International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 465-82. Malmborg, C.J. and Deutsch, S.J. (1988), ``A stock location model for dual address order picking systems'', IIE Transactions, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 44-52. Ruben, R.A. and Jacobs, F.R. (1999), ``Batch construction heuristics and storage assignment strategies for walk/ride and pick systems'', Management Science, Vol. 45 No. 4, pp. 575-96. Sadiq, M., Landers, T.L. and Taylor, G.D. (1999), ``An assignment algorithm for dynamic picking systems'', IIE Transactions, Vol. 28, pp. 607-16. Smith, J.D., and Tompkins, J.A. (1982), How to Plan and Manage Warehouse Operations, American Management Association. Tompkins, J.A., White, J.A., Bozer, Y.A., Frazelle, E.H., Tanchoco, J.M.A. and Trevino, J. (1996), Facilities Planning, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. van den Berg, J.P. (1999), ``A literature survey on planning and control of warehousing systems'', IIE Transactions, Vol. 31, pp. 751-62. White, J.A. (1980), ``Randomized storage or dedicated storage'', Modern Materials Handling, Vol. 35 No. 1, p. 19. Witt, C.E. (1995), ``Distribution: once a necessity, now a value-added function'', Material Handling Engineering, Vol. 50 No. 9, pp. 56-62. Yoon, C.S. and Sharp, G.P. (1996), ``A structured procedure for analysis and design of order pick systems'', IIE Transactions, Vol. 28, pp. 379-89.

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