Abstract
Warehouse operations have a significant role to survive in today’s competitive world. Hence, companies introduce various solutions to improve efficiency of warehouses which is mainly affected by the performance of storage operations. This study deals with a real-life storage location and assignment problem encountered in a fastener company where several orders consisting steel coils are to be assigned into storage areas. Three individual objective functions; minimizing the number of lanes to be used, minimizing area usage, and maximizing volume utilization are considered. For the investigated problem, first, an integer linear programming (ILP) model is developed. Then, a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) which provides quick and efficient solutions is proposed. The proposed methods are applied to the real problem case and the results are compared with the current storage assignment. Moreover, through an extensive computational study, the performances of proposed methods are evaluated on a set of test problems with different range of characteristics. The computational results show that the ILP model proves optimality in most of the problem instances within reasonable computation times, while the GRASP gives quick solutions with small optimality gaps.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexeeva E, Mezmaz M, Tuyttens D, Melab N (2016) Parallel multi-core hyper-heuristic GRASP to solve permutation flow-shop problem. Concurr Comput Pract Exp 29(e3835):1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.3835
Alfathi N, Lyhyaoui A, Sedqui A (2019) Fusion of dedicated and shared storage to maximize the use of space of static warehouses. J Ind Prod Eng 36(8):512–532. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681015.2019.1697385
Battista C, Fumi A, Laura L, Schiraldi MM (2014) Multiproduct slot allocation heuristic to minimize storage space. Int J Retail Distrib Manag 42(3):172–186. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-03-2012-0024
Dong Y, Zhao R, Xu W, Yang M, Jiang W (2021) Integrated optimisation of consolidation and stowage planning of steel coil ships using differential evolution. Int J Prod Res 59(4):1239–1257. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1722323
Eski O, Araz C, Delen T, Bayoglu L (2013) RFID based raw material warehouse management. CBU J Sci 9(2):31–43
Fontana ME, Cavalcante CAV (2014a) Using the efficient frontier to obtain the best solution for the storage location assignment problem. Math Probl Eng. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/745196
Fontana ME, Cavalcante CAV (2014b) Use of Promethee method to determine the best alternative for warehouse storage location assignment. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 70(9–12):1615–1624. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-013-5405-z
Fontana ME, Nepomuceno VS, Garcez TV (2020) A hybrid approach development to solving the storage location assignment problem in a picker-to-parts system. Braz J Oper Prod Manag 17(1):2020. https://doi.org/10.14488/bjopm.2020.005
Fumi A, Scarabotti L, Schiraldi MM (2013) Minimizing warehouse space with a dedicated storage policy. Int J Eng Bus Manag 5(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.5772/56756
Gu J, Goetschalckx M, McGinnis LF (2007) Research on warehouse operation: a comprehensive review. Eur J Oper Res 177(1):1–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2006.02.025
Guerriero F, Pisacane O, Rende F (2015) Comparing heuristics for the product allocation problem in multi-level warehouses under compatibility constraints. Appl Math Model 39(23–24):7375–7389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2015.02.047
IBM (2015) IBM ILOG CPLEX 12.6.2. User's Manual. IBM ILOG CPLEX Division, Incline Village, NV
Jang DW, Kim KH (2013) Optimal configuration of storage systems for mixed pyramid stacking. Int J Ind Eng Theory Appl Pract 20:163–175
Lai KK, Xue J, Zhang G (2002) Layout design for a paper reel warehouse: a two-stage heuristic approach. Int J Prod Econ 75(3):231–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-5273(01)00095-0
Lozano-Osorio I, Sánchez-Oro J, Duarte A, Cordon O (2021) A quick GRASP-based method for influence maximization in social networks. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-021-03510-4
Muppani VR, Adil GK (2008a) Efficient formation of storage classes for warehouse storage location assignment: a simulated annealing approach. Omega 36(4):609–618. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2007.01.006
Muppani VR, Adil GK (2008b) A branch and bound algorithm for class based storage location assignment. Eur J Oper Res 189(2):492–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2007.05.050
Nastasi G, Colla V, Cateni S, Campigli S (2018) Implementation and comparison of algorithms for multi-objective optimization based on genetic algorithms applied to the management of an automated warehouse. J Intell Manuf 29:1545–1557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-016-1198-x
Öztürkoğlu Ö (2020) A bi-objective mathematical model for product allocation in block stacking warehouses. Int Trans Oper Res 27(4):2184–2210. https://doi.org/10.1111/ITOR.12506
Park TK, Kim KH (2010) Comparing handling and space costs for various types of stacking methods. Comput Ind Eng 58(3):501–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2009.11.011
Quintanilla S, Pérez Á, Ballestín F, Lino P (2015) Heuristic algorithms for a storage location assignment problem in a chaotic warehouse. Eng Optim 47(10):1405–1422. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305215X.2014.969727
Reyes JJR, Solano-Charris EL, Montoya-Torres JR (2019) The storage location assignment problem: a literature review. Int J Ind Eng Comput 10:199–224
Tang L, Zhao R, Liu J (2012) Models and algorithms for shuffling problems in steel plants. Nav Res Logist 59(7):502–524. https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.21503
Tang L, Xie X, Liu J (2014) Crane scheduling in a warehouse storing steel coils. IIE Trans (inst Ind Eng) 46(3):267–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/0740817X.2013.802841
Tang L, Liu J, Yang F, Li F, Li K (2015) Modeling and solution for the ship stowage planning problem of coils in the steel industry. Nav Res Logist 62(7):564–581. https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.21664
Umeda T, Kitamura A, Konishi M, Kanamura S, Takami S (2001) Optimization search algorithm of allocation planning for strip coils in hold for shipment by using operational know-how. ISIJ Int 41(5):446–453. https://doi.org/10.2355/isijinternational.41.446
Xie X, Zhu Q, Li Y, Zheng Y, Zhou H, Li X (2013) A dynamic programming for solving crane scheduling in steel coil warehouse. In: Proceedings of 2013 2nd international conference on measurement, information and control ICMIC 2013, vol 1, pp 365–369. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2013.6757984
Xie X, Zheng Y, Li Y (2014) Multi-crane scheduling in steel coil warehouse. Expert Syst Appl 41(6):2874–2885. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.10.022
Zäpfel G, Wasner M (2006) Warehouse sequencing in the steel supply chain as a generalized job shop model. Int J Prod Econ 104(2):482–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2004.10.005
Zhang GQ, Xue J, Lai KK (2000) A genetic algorithm based heuristic for adjacent paper-reel layout problem. Int J Prod Res 38(14):3343–3356. https://doi.org/10.1080/002075400418289
Zhao R, Tang L (2009) An effective tabu search based algorithm for integrated pickling-rolling scheduling and coil shuffling in iron and steel industry. In: Proceedings of 2009 international joint conference on computational sciences and optimization CSO 2009, vol 2, pp 986–988. https://doi.org/10.1109/CSO.2009.334
Funding
We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose valuable remarks and insights greatly improved the quality and presentation of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Edis, E.B., Uzun Araz, O., Eski, O. et al. Storage location assignment of steel coils in a manufacturing company: an integer linear programming model and a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure. TOP 31, 67–109 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11750-022-00625-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11750-022-00625-5
Keywords
- Storage location assignment problem
- Round item
- Integer linear programming
- Greedy randomized adaptive search procedure