Warehouse picking simulation

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Abhishek Y asked Mar 8, '23 Jason Lightfoot commented Mar 16, '23

Warehouse picking simulation

I am very new to flexsim and recently built a model to simulate the putaway task using a forklift. After a lot of struggle I managed to do the putaway operations

following is the flow of items for the putaway operation

1. Source that generates items as per the label(sku1, sku2, sku3, etc..) that I have mentioned

2. It then waits in the queue until a forklist picks it up

3. The floor storage(hidden because of the barrier that i have used so that forklift does not runover the storage locations) has been colored as per the label to designate which sku should be stored where.

As of now I don't have trouble with the model with all the trial and error that I have been doing.

The next task is that I want to make an order list in excel that says order #1 - pick sku1, sku3, sku5 in qty 3,4 and 5 then order #2- pick sku3, sku6 in qty 5 and 1... and so on. Then I would want a human to pick the orders for me and place it somewhere.

The objective is to simulate 2 cases

(a) when the picklist is not sequential as per the layout pick for order #1 - sku3, sku5, sku1, etc.. randomly

(b) when the picklist is sequence as per the layout to minimize travel time order #1 - sku1, sku3, sku5, etc

I want to compare both the scenarios in terms of travel time and duration that a picker spends to process the same orders when a proper pick path(case b) is given vs. he goes all random(case a)
f1_autosave_1.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 22.1.2

warehouse order picking optimization

1678271884336.png (103.4 KiB)

1678272207116.png (105.3 KiB)

f1-autosave-1.fsm (1.9 MiB)

Answer 1 · 2023-03-08T18:38:34Z

Jason Lightfoot answered Mar 8, '23 Jason Lightfoot commented Mar 16, '23

You can do this by pulling the array of items to be picked - and choosing to order the items using the SQL clause. You may be able to specify the aisle and bay fields in a list and have the array ordered by the route that would be travelled in a single pull, or you may want to push them to a temporary list and pull them in aisle bay sequence changing the bay order to ascending or descending depending on the direction you expect to travel down the aisle. You can have the clause 'ORDER BY RAND()' to shuffle the items. There are examples of both of these on this site.

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Abhishek Y commented · Mar 08, 2023 at 08:39 PM

I have prepared an excel that has a list of 50 orders along with the sku and qty needed, I am struggling to upload that excel into the flexsim file.

Also once I have uploaded the excel do I have to use processflow to structure my picking process or is there any inbuilt function for the same? Thank you for the reply though, I am kind on my toes with my assignment submissions, hence want to do it asap

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Jason Lightfoot ♦ Abhishek Y commented · Mar 08, 2023 at 09:03 PM

Process flow should make it simpler to implement, understand, verify and if needed debug - plus there are more process flow examples on this site from which you can learn.

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Abhishek Y commented · Mar 09, 2023 at 01:34 PM

Hey Jason, if it is not much of a task can you add the picking operations to my model? I am really struggling to get it done and wanted to use it for my research. I would be really thankful if you could help.

I tried the process flow approach but I was unable to use the commands that tells the model to pick 'sku' which is a label that I have used

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Jason Lightfoot ♦ Abhishek Y commented · Mar 09, 2023 at 01:50 PM

I've just looked at your model and I don't see where you intend to define what needs picking. Also you have not set the address scheme for the floor storage in order to sequence aisles and bays. Let's see how far you get and post back with what you've tried and where you got stuck.

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Abhishek Y Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented · Mar 09, 2023 at 04:06 PM

mod1_autosave.fsm flexsimmm1.xlsx

I tried my best to add the address scheme to the floor storage locations.

And I was exploring the process view. The problem is I am now able to import the tables to flexsim, since I am aware of the token creation logic and how to make sure the resource picks it up from the location as per the order list, it's all giving me a tough time.

And this is related to my research which only focuses on understanding how much time and efforts does one save when the orders are picked without a path vs they are picked with the use of a shortest path. I had previously used flexsim as a consultant, though the model was built by a 3rd party I knew the tweaking and outputs bit.

It would be great if you can add 2 ways(random vs shortest path) of picking the orders as in the attached excel. Also is there a way to have a fixed qty in the inventory as per mentioned in the excel? I started off with the inbound process which was unecessary for me just to fill the locations with items so that picking doesnt show error, it would be helpful if you can show me a way for filling storage with x items at time 0

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mod1-autosave.fsm (154.9 KiB)

flexsimmm1.xlsx (12.3 KiB)

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