Material Handling Forum

Routing strategies
A routing strategy is a strategy by which the route through the warehouse is determined. A route is a path in
which you pass all items of an order. If you want to reduce the orderpicking costs to a minimum, the route
have to be as short as possible.
There are several routing strategies, but not all of them are suited for any situation. We have decided to take
the following four routing strategies into this page:

The S-Shape routing strategy

The S-shape strategy is also called the Traversal strategy. This strategy leads to a route in which the aisles, that
are to be visited, are totally traversed. Aisles where nothing has to be picked are skipped. Thus aisles are
visited in the shape of an S. The picker thus enters an aisle from one end and leaves the aisle from the other
end, starting at the left side of the warehouse. After picking the last item, the order picker returns to the front
end of the aisle. This strategy is used frequently, because it is very simple to use and to understand.

Below, you can see how the selected items are to be picked according to the S-shape heuristic in a
warehouse with a central depot and no cross aisles. The order picker starts at the depot and then enters the
left most aisle containing items or the right most aisle containing items, whichever is the closest. The picker
goes from one item to another by crossing the (item containing) aisles entirely. Finally, he returns to the
depot.

The Largest Gap routing strategy

In the Largest Gap strategy a picker enters an aisle as far as the largest gap within an aisle. A gap represents
the distance between any two adjacent picks, between the first pick and the front aisle, or between the last
pick and the back aisle. The largest gap is the part of the aisle that is not visited by the order picker. If the
largest gap is between two adjacent picks, the picker performs a return route from both ends of the aisle.
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Otherwise, a return route from either the front or back aisle is used. The largest gap within an aisle is
therefore the portion of the aisle that the picker does not traverse. The back aisle can only be accessed
through either the first or last aisle. The Largest Gap heuristic is especially useful when the additional time to
change aisles is short and the number of picks per aisle is low.

Below, you can see how the selected items are to be picked according to the Largest Gap heuristic in a
warehouse with a central depot and no cross aisles. Similar to the S-shape heuristic, the order picker starts at
the depot and goes to the front of the aisle, closest to the depot, that contains at least one item. Thus, this is
the most left or most right item containing aisle. This aisle is traversed entirely after which each aisle at the
rear end of the warehouse is entered as far as the 'largest gap' and left from the same side that it was entered.
The last aisle is traversed entirely to the front. Now, the aisles are entered from the front end as far as the
'largest gap'. If all items are picked, the picker returns to the depot.

The Combined routing strategy

In this routing strategy, developed by Roodbergen and De Koster (/material-handling-forum/research-
education/tools/calc-order-picking-time/references/#Roodbergen) (1998), every time all items of one aisle
are picked, the question is posed whether to go to the rear end of an aisle or to return to the front end. These
two alternatives have to be compared with each other after which the one, resulting in the shortest route, is
chosen. Thus, after leaving an aisle (at the front or at the rear end), a choice between the two alternatives
ending at the back and a choice between the two alternatives ending at the front has to be made. This means
there are always two possible routes to follow. If the last item is picked (now, the route ends at the front end)
a final choice between the two alternatives is made. As you can see in the picture below the items are picked
aisle by aisle.

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The Optimal routing strategy
The optimal routing strategy can calculate a shortest route, regardless of layout or location of the items.
Optimal routes will typically look like a mixture of S-Shape and Largest Gap. Ratliff and Rosenthal (/material-
handling-forum/research-education/tools/calc-order-picking-time/references/#Ratliff) (1983) developed an
optimal procedure for routing workers in a rectangular warehouse without cross aisles. Hall (/material-
handling-forum/research-education/tools/calc-order-picking-time/references/#Hall) (1993) noted that
heuristic strategies might provide near optimal routes and avoid the confusion inherent in optimal solutions.
The majority of orderpicking operations uses heuristic routing strategies. The one advantage to the use of
heuristics is that they are easy to understand and form routes that are fairly consistent in nature, which is why
heuristic strategies are commonly used in practice.
Below, you can see how the selected items are to be picked according to the optimal routing strategy in a
warehouse with a central depot and no cross aisles.
This site uses an optimal routing method that can find shortest orderpicking routes in warehouses with 0 and
1 cross aisles.

Routing strategies and cross aisles

In the following part of this page an explanation of these strategies on how to use them if the warehouse is
divided in blocks by cross aisles is given. The strategies are explained in the same order as before:

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The warehouse consists of a number of blocks, each consisting of a number of parallel aisles. The items are
stored at both sides of the aisles. With main aisle we refer to an aisle between the front and rear end of the
warehouse, going through all blocks. The front aisle and the rear aisle are located entirely at respectively the
front and the rear of the warehouse. These two aisles do not contain items, but can be used for changing
aisles. Between each pair of blocks, there is a cross aislewhich can be used to go from one aisle to the next or
from one block to the next.
Order pickers are assumed to be able to traverse the aisles in both directions and to change direction within
the aisles. The aisles are narrow enough to allow picking from both sides of the aisle without changing
position. Each order consists of a number of items that are usually spread out over a number of aisles. We
assume that the items of an order can be picked in a single route. Aisle changes are possible at the front end,
the rear end and in any of the cross aisles. Picked orders have to be deposited at the depot, where the picker
also receives the instructions for the next route. The depot is located in the front aisle at the head of the first
main aisle. The figure on the right gives an example of such a warehouse.

On this site we use four different types of routing. Two heuristics are based on well known heuristics for the
basic layout: S-shape and Largest Gap. Furthermore, a hybrid strategy is introduced, combining aspects from
both S-shape and Largest Gap. The fourth routing method, consists of finding a shortest route. Each method
is described below and illustrated in a figure.

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 S-Shape heuristic

Basically, any aisle containing at least one item is traversed through the entire length. Aisles where nothing
has to be picked are skipped. In the following more elaborate description of the heuristic, numbers between
brackets correspond to the numbers in the figure on the right.

The order picking route starts at the depot. It goes to the front of the main aisle closest to the depot, that
contains at least one item (1). This main aisle is traversed up to and including the block farthest from the
depot, that contains at least one item (2).

If the current block contains at least one item: Go to the left most aisle containing items or go to the right
most aisle containing items, whichever is the closest (3); go from one aisle to the next and traverse any aisle
containing items entirely; after picking the last item, return to the front of the block (4). If this block contains
no items: Traverse the aisle of this block, that is closest to the current position. Repeat this procedure for all
blocks until the block closest to the depot has been considered (5). Finally, return to the depot.

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 Largest Gap heuristic

A route resulting from this heuristic is depicted in the figure on the right. Numbers in this figure are explained
below.

Similar to the S-shape heuristic, the order picking route starts at the depot; it goes to the front of the main
aisle closest to the depot, that contains at least one item; traverses this main aisle up to and including the
block farthest from the depot that contains at least one item (1).

On traversing the cross aisle (which is actually the rear aisle in the example of Figure 3), each aisle is entered
as far as the "largest gap" and left from the same side that it was entered (2). A gap represents the distance
between any two adjacent items, or between a cross aisle and the nearest item. Thus, the largest gap is the
part of the aisle that is not traversed.

The last aisle of the block is traversed entirely, by which we arrive in the next cross aisle (3). This cross aisle is
traversed, while visiting the aisles of the blocks on both sides of the cross aisle up to the largest gap. First the
aisles on one side of the cross aisle are visited (4) and thereafter the aisles on the other side (5). One aisle is
again traversed entirely to reach the next cross aisle (6). This may be either the left or the right most aisle
containing items, depending on which of the two gives the shortest travel distance within the cross aisle.

This process is repeated for all blocks containing items. If a block does not contain items, then the aisle of this
block, that is closest to the current position is traversed entirely. After considering the last block, return to the
depot (7).

Combined heuristic /
This heuristic creates order picking routes that visit every aisle, that contains items, exactly once. The aisles of
each block are visited sequentially, either from left to right or from right to left.

Similar to the S-shape and largest gap heuristics, the order picking route starts at the depot; it goes to the
front of the main aisle closest to the depot, that contains at least one item; traverses this main aisle up to and
including the block farthest from the depot that contains at least one item.

For each block we perform a small dynamic programming algorithm. In order to use the concept of dynamic
programming, we have to define the potential states, the possible transitions between states, and the costs
involved in such a transition. We define two states:

1. the orderpicker is at the front of the block

2. the orderpicker is at the rear of the block.

We define 6 transitions:

1. go from the current aisle to the next aisle along the front of the block and traverse this aisle entirely,
ending up at the rear of the block,
2. go from the current aisle to the next aisle along the rear of the block and traverse this aisle entirely,
ending up at the front of the block,
3. go from the current aisle to the next along the front of the block and do not enter this aisle at all,
4. go from the current aisle to the next along the rear of the block and do not enter this aisle at all,
5. go from the current aisle to the next aisle along the front of the block and traverse this aisle up to the
item farthest from the front and return to the front,

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 6. go from the current aisle to the next aisle along the rear of the block and traverse this aisle up to the
item farthest from the rear and return to the rear.

Clearly, transitions (3) and (4) are only allowed if the aisle does not contain any items. The cost of each
transition is equal to the travel time needed for the distance in the transition.

The following figure depicts the 6 transitions. The current aisle is aisle j, the next aisle is aisle j+1. The rear end
of aisle j is denoted by aj and the front end by bj.

We apply the dynamic programming algorithm to each block separately. The connection between the blocks
is made in such a way that the distance traveled in the cross aisles in minimized. If the block closest to the
depot has been evaluated, the order picker returns to the depot. A route resulting from this algorithm is
depicted above on the right. For a more elaborate description of this heuristic, see Roodbergen and De Koster
(/material-handling-forum/research-education/tools/calc-order-picking-time/references/#Roodbergen)
(1998).

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 Optimal algorithm

For the basic warehouse layout we can find shortest order picking routes with the algorithm of Ratliff and
Rosenthal (/material-handling-forum/research-education/tools/calc-order-picking-time/references/#Ratliff)
(1983). However, adding just one cross aisle to this basic layout, complicates the solution procedure
significantly. In Roodbergen and De Koster (1998) an algorithm is described to find shortest order picking
routes in a warehouse with three possibilities for changing aisles: at the front, at the rear and somewhere in
between. Following the lines of Ratliff and Rosenthal (1983), this algorithm uses dynamic programming to
solve the problem. From the paper it is apparent that any extension to more cross aisles is non-trivial and the
number of equivalence classes and possible transitions increases rapidly.

Therefore, on this internet site it is only possible to calculate and display shortest order picking routes for
warehouses consisting of one or two blocks.

Of course, in theory it is possible to calculate optimal routes for warehouses with any number of block by
using a branch-and-bound algorithm. The route in the figure on the right is found this way. However, for this
site such an algorithm is too complex.