Turnover-based storage in non-traditional unit-load warehouse designs

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of assigning the most-active items to the best locations in unit-load warehouses with non-traditional aisles. Specifically, the performance of flying-V and fishbone designs are investigated when products exhibit different velocity profiles. Both single- and dual-command operations are considered for a warehouse where receiving and shipping are located at the midpoint of one side of the warehouse. For dual-command operations, a fishbone design shows similar reductions in travel distances for both random and turnover-based storage policies. The fishbone designs that provide the best performance have a diagonal cross aisle that extends to the upper corners of the picking space and are approximately half as tall as they are wide. In general, warehouse design parameters that perform best under random storage also perform well under turnover-based storage.