Forward Pick Area Design and Operations

In a typical warehouse operation, the order-picking process consists of retrieving products from storage locations to fulfill customer orders. The process has received a great deal of attention from warehousing practitioners and researchers because it is generally the most labor-consuming operation in a warehouse, accounting for approximately 35% of a warehouse operating cost. From a general point of view, there are two basic order picking systems, namely parts-to-picker, and picker-to-parts. In the former, some sort of automated system is used to bring the products to the picker (i.e., the picking operator), whereas in the latter, the picker travels along the aisles of the warehouse retrieving the required products from the storage locations. Among these two types of systems, it has been well documented that the largest proportion of order picking systems found worldwide belong to the picker-to-parts type, probably because of the lower capital investment required and the flexibility and adaptability of human workers.