HOW ORDER PLACEMENT INFLUENCES RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND ORDER PROCESSING TIMES INSIDE A MULTI-USER WAREHOUSE

This paper focuses on the influence of different order placement behavior of users on the allocation of common resources inside a multi-user warehouse. Furthermore, the interdependencies between one user's resource usage on other users' order processing time is investigated. For this objective, an agent-based simulation model has been developed, depicting a rectangular warehouse with two users and one order picker. Results show that different order placement behavior and resource usage of one user have a strong influence on order processing times of other users. Furthermore, by simulating uneven order placement by one user, it can be shown that peaks in order demand influence other user's order processing times with a delay of up to two hours after the peak occurred. Thus, the results highlight the need for coordinated order placement of partners inside a multi-user warehouse.