Genetic algorithms for route optimization in the picking problem

Abstract

The picking problem is part of the item picking problem in a warehouse for a given order and is the most expensive in the process; Optimizing the item collection time is essential because it is a bottleneck in the service rate of orders fulfilled and has a significant impact on the efficiency of the supply chain. This work proposes a strategy to reduce the picking time by minimizing the route using  a genetic algorithm; a comparison is performed with other heuristic strategies in warehouses with different morphologies and considering orders of different sizes.