Layout-Agnostic Order-Batching Optimization

Order-batching is an important methodology in warehouse material handling. This paper addresses three identified shortcomings in the current literature on order-batching optimization. The first concerns the overly large dependence on conventional warehouse layouts. The second is a lack of proposed optimization methods capable of producing approximate solutions in minimal computational time. The third is a scarcity of benchmark datasets, which are necessary for data-driven performance evaluation. This paper introduces an optimization algorithm, SBI, capable of generating reasonably strong solutions to order-batching problems for any warehouse layout at great speed. On an existing benchmark dataset for a conventional layout, Foodmart, results show that the algorithm on average used 6.9% computational time and 105.8% travel cost relative to the state of the art. New benchmark instances and proposed solutions for various layouts and problem settings were shared on a public repository.