Optimal Warehouse Bay Configurations

Abstract

Abstract This paper deals with the determination of warehouse bay configurations which minimize the costs of handling and construction under the assumption of random storage locations. Two specific bay configuration schemes are developed. Under the unrestricted case, adjacent bays are not required to use common columns at bay corners. The restricted case, however, requires the use of common corners. Solution methodologies are developed to evolve optimal configurations for each case and example computational results are presented. The developments presented serve as analytical aids for storage or warehouse design in that they may be used for direct solution or as “benchmarks” for alternative design evaluation.