Order-Picking System Design and Control
Module 06 · Week 41 · Design
Order-Picking System Design and Control
Select a picking architecture and explain how travel, capacity, and automation affect throughput.
Decision levelTactical system design and operational control
Core evidenceTravel time, throughput, labor, and capacity
Which picking architecture best converts demand into throughput under realistic travel and capacity constraints?
Order picking is often the warehouse’s most labor- and travel-intensive activity. This module compares picker-to-parts and parts-to-picker architectures. It then examines routing, batching, capacity, and automation choices under their operating constraints.
By the end of this module, you can
- compare picker-to-parts and parts-to-picker systems;
- explain how routing and batching influence travel time;
- identify capacity and congestion constraints;
- evaluate where automation changes the operating logic; and
- connect system choice to throughput, flexibility, and implementation risk.
Teaching material
The order-picking tutorial develops routing, batching, and three-picker scheduling methods with worked Python examples and animated solutions in Pickbench.
Use De Koster, Le-Duc, and Roodbergen’s literature review for an overview of order-picking design and control.
Assignment
WH-AS4 - Order-picking improvement evaluates a picking-only change in the current warehouse and picking strategies suited to the design combinations retained from earlier assignments. Reuse the group’s SPR analysis and present the results in the shared management report.