E-commerce, as an emerging marketing mode, has attracted more and more attention and gradually changed the way of our life. However, the existing layout of distribution centers can＇t fulfill the storage and picking d...E-commerce, as an emerging marketing mode, has attracted more and more attention and gradually changed the way of our life. However, the existing layout of distribution centers can＇t fulfill the storage and picking demands of e-commerce sufficiently. In this paper, a modified miniload automated storage/retrieval system is designed to fit these new characteristics of e-commerce in logistics. Meanwhile, a matching problem, concerning with the improvement of picking efficiency in new system, is studied in this paper. The problem is how to reduce the travelling distance of totes between aisles and picking stations. A multi-stage heuristic algorithm is proposed based on statement and model of this problem. The main idea of this algorithm is, with some heuristic strategies based on similarity coefficients, minimizing the transportations of items which can not arrive in the destination picking stations just through direct conveyors. The experimental results based on the cases generated by computers show that the average reduced rate of indirect transport times can reach 14.36% with the application of multi-stage heuristic algorithm. For the cases from a real e-commerce distribution center, the order processing time can be reduced from 11.20 h to 10.06 h with the help of the modified system and the proposed algorithm. In summary, this research proposed a modified system and a multi-stage heuristic algorithm that can reduce the travelling distance of totes effectively and improve the whole performance of e-commerce distribution center.展开更多
In this article, we propose efficient methods for solving two stage transshipment problems. Transshipment problem is the special case of Minimum cost flow problem in which arc capacities are infinite. We start by prop...In this article, we propose efficient methods for solving two stage transshipment problems. Transshipment problem is the special case of Minimum cost flow problem in which arc capacities are infinite. We start by proposing a novel problem formulation for a two stage transshipment problem. Later, special structure of our problem formulation is utilized to devise two dual based heuristics solutions with computational complexity of O (n2), and O (n3) respectively. These methods are motivated by the methods developed by Sharma and Saxena [1], Sinha and Sharma [2]. Our methods differ in the initialization and the subsequent variation of the dual variables associated with the transshipment nodes along the shortest path. Lastly, a method is proposed to extract a very good primal solution from the given dual solutions with a computational complexity of O (n2). Efficacy of these methods is demonstrated by our numerical analysis on 200 random problems.展开更多
Single Stage Capacitated Warehouse Location Problem (SSCWLP) has been attempted by few researchers in the past. These are Geoffrion and Graves [1], Sharma [2], Sharma [3] and Sharma and Berry [4]. In this paper we giv...Single Stage Capacitated Warehouse Location Problem (SSCWLP) has been attempted by few researchers in the past. These are Geoffrion and Graves [1], Sharma [2], Sharma [3] and Sharma and Berry [4]. In this paper we give a “vertical decomposition” approach to solve SSCWLP that uses Lagrangian relaxation. This way SSCWLP is broken into two versions of capacitated plant location problem (the CPLP_L and CPLP_R) by relaxing the flow balance constraints. For CPLP_R, we use well known Lagrangian relaxations given in literature (Christofides and Beasley [5] and Nauss [6]);and adopt them suitably for solving CPLP_L. We show theoretically in this paper that SSCWLP can be more efficiently solved by techniques of vertical decomposition developed in this paper than the method available in literature (Sharma and Berry [4]). Encouraging computational study is reported in this paper.展开更多
文摘E-commerce, as an emerging marketing mode, has attracted more and more attention and gradually changed the way of our life. However, the existing layout of distribution centers can＇t fulfill the storage and picking demands of e-commerce sufficiently. In this paper, a modified miniload automated storage/retrieval system is designed to fit these new characteristics of e-commerce in logistics. Meanwhile, a matching problem, concerning with the improvement of picking efficiency in new system, is studied in this paper. The problem is how to reduce the travelling distance of totes between aisles and picking stations. A multi-stage heuristic algorithm is proposed based on statement and model of this problem. The main idea of this algorithm is, with some heuristic strategies based on similarity coefficients, minimizing the transportations of items which can not arrive in the destination picking stations just through direct conveyors. The experimental results based on the cases generated by computers show that the average reduced rate of indirect transport times can reach 14.36% with the application of multi-stage heuristic algorithm. For the cases from a real e-commerce distribution center, the order processing time can be reduced from 11.20 h to 10.06 h with the help of the modified system and the proposed algorithm. In summary, this research proposed a modified system and a multi-stage heuristic algorithm that can reduce the travelling distance of totes effectively and improve the whole performance of e-commerce distribution center.
文摘In this article, we propose efficient methods for solving two stage transshipment problems. Transshipment problem is the special case of Minimum cost flow problem in which arc capacities are infinite. We start by proposing a novel problem formulation for a two stage transshipment problem. Later, special structure of our problem formulation is utilized to devise two dual based heuristics solutions with computational complexity of O (n2), and O (n3) respectively. These methods are motivated by the methods developed by Sharma and Saxena [1], Sinha and Sharma [2]. Our methods differ in the initialization and the subsequent variation of the dual variables associated with the transshipment nodes along the shortest path. Lastly, a method is proposed to extract a very good primal solution from the given dual solutions with a computational complexity of O (n2). Efficacy of these methods is demonstrated by our numerical analysis on 200 random problems.
文摘Single Stage Capacitated Warehouse Location Problem (SSCWLP) has been attempted by few researchers in the past. These are Geoffrion and Graves [1], Sharma [2], Sharma [3] and Sharma and Berry [4]. In this paper we give a “vertical decomposition” approach to solve SSCWLP that uses Lagrangian relaxation. This way SSCWLP is broken into two versions of capacitated plant location problem (the CPLP_L and CPLP_R) by relaxing the flow balance constraints. For CPLP_R, we use well known Lagrangian relaxations given in literature (Christofides and Beasley [5] and Nauss [6]);and adopt them suitably for solving CPLP_L. We show theoretically in this paper that SSCWLP can be more efficiently solved by techniques of vertical decomposition developed in this paper than the method available in literature (Sharma and Berry [4]). Encouraging computational study is reported in this paper.
