Minimising the peak load in a shared storage system based on the duration-of-stay of unit loads

The peak load is the maximum daily processing capacity requirement in a warehouse, and is an alternative criterion for the storage location assignment problem in warehousing management. This paper addresses the problem of minimising the peak load in a storage/retrieval system with shared storage policy based on duration-of-stay of unit loads. A mixed integer programming model is presented. Two heuristics are developed to solve the problem. Their performances on different criteria are compared by computational tests.