Order batching and pick routes in an e-commerce warehouse
Which orders go on which trolley, and in which order does the picker walk the aisles?
Drag to rotate, scroll or pinch to zoom. The schedule below plays the plan; hover a bar for details. Plan computed with a Timefold model.
The planning question
An e-commerce shelving hall with 12 narrow aisles, a middle cross aisle and 900 articles in chaotic storage. A morning wave is picked with trolleys that carry several order buckets; pick & pack is along the west wall. Today, orders are picked one by one in location sequence.
How we plan it
Batching and routing are solved together with Timefold (similar to the Timefold order-picking quickstart): orders whose articles are close together share a trolley.
What the plan shows
| KPI | Optimized plan | Comparison: order by order |
|---|---|---|
| walking (m) | 1,924 −1,614 | 3,538 |
| wave done after (min) | 15 −8 | 23 |
| lines per picker hour | 109 +41 | 68 |
Decisions
- trolley and bucket per order (batching)
- pick sequence per trolley (route through the aisles)
Constraints
- bucket and trolley capacity
- orders are not split over trolleys
- aisle layout with cross aisle
- wave end time
Objective
short walking distance, wave finished early, more lines per picker hour
Questions
Does it need a new warehouse system?
No. Orders and locations come from the existing WMS; the optimized batches and pick lists go back to it.
What about multi-level racks?
Levels and lift times can be part of the walking-time model.
More use cases
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