Article ID: | iaor1991934 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 36 |
Issue: | 9 |
Start Page Number: | 1120 |
End Page Number: | 1132 |
Publication Date: | Sep 1990 |
Journal: | Management Science |
Authors: | Goetschalckx Marc, Ratliff H. Donald |
Keywords: | inventory, storage |
This paper addresses duration-of-stay-based shared storage policies for a unit load warehouse. The authors show that, for single command storage and retrieval, shared storage policies based on duration of stay of individual unit loads have the potential to significantly decrease travel time. An optimal storage policy with respect to travel time and storage space is developed for systems with balanced input and output. Based on the same principles, two heuristic policies are developed for more complex systems. Simulation results are provided which compare travel times for dedicated storage, random storage, turnover-based storage classes, and duration-of-stay-based storage classes.