TITLE:
Pod Layout Problem in Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System Using Synchronized Zoning
AUTHORS:
Mengcheng Guan, Zhenping Li
KEYWORDS:
Pod Layout Problem, Spectral Clustering Algorithm, Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics,
Vol.6 No.12,
December
20,
2018
ABSTRACT: This article studies the pod layout
problem in the Kiva mobile fulfillment system which adopts the synchronized
zoning strategy. An integer programming model for the pod layout problem is
formulated under the premise of knowing the relationship of the pods and items.
A three-stage algorithm is proposed based on the Spectral Clustering algorithm.
Firstly, the pod similarity matrix and the Laplacian matrix are constructed
according to the relationship of the pods and items. Secondly, the pods are
clustered by the Spectral Clustering algorithm and assigned to each zone based
on the cluster results. Finally, the exact locations of pods in each zone are
determined by the historical retrieval frequency of items, using the real data
of a large-scale Kiva mobile fulfillment system to simulate and calculate the
order picking efficiency before and after the adjustment of the pod layout. The
results showed that the pod layout using synchronized zoning strategy can
effectively improve the picking efficiency.