Decision-Making Impacts of Originating Picking Waves Process for a Distribution Center Using Discrete-Event Simulation

Discrete-Event Simulation is a powerful tool in modeling logistic systems, especially picking operations, usually the most costly activity in warehouses. However, is not a common practice to include human decisions in Discrete-Event Simulation projects. This paper reports a Discrete-Event Simulation model designed to evaluate picking waves strategies in a distribution center of the optical industry's leader in Brazil. It was necessary to model 4 scenarios of picking waves generation process to evaluate the best picking wave strategy. In the best scenario, we achieved an average reduction of 10% in total operation time, along with an average reduction of 4% in the total picker's walking distance.