Class-based storage with a finite number of items

What is it about?

Class-based storage is widely studied in the literature and applied in practice. It divides all stored items into a number of classes according to their turnover. A class of items with higher turnover is allocated to a region closer to the warehouse depot. In the literature, it has been shown that the use of more storage classes leads to a shorter travel time for storing and retrieving items.

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Why is it important?

A basic assumption in this literature is that the required storage space for all items equals their average inventory level, which is valid only if an infinite number of items can be stored in each storage region. This study revisits class-based storage by considering each storage space to contain only a finite number of items. We develop a travel time model and an algorithm that can be used for determining the optimal number and boundaries of storage classes in warehouses. Different from the conventional research, our findings illustrate that commonly asmall number of classes is optimal.