Simulation of working procedures in a distribution centre

Abstract

This simulation study has been developed to assess a set of realistic proposals of a new distribution centre to a pharmaceutical company, with a focus on the sorting operation. Different sorting strategies, establishing dynamic assignment of the lanes to destinations and lanes to operators are proposed. Also different packing procedures have been presented according to the operator way of working. New qualitative criterions have been defined to evaluate the strategies. The results show some interesting non-linear behaviour in the sorting operation, and give the number of required operators, length of the lanes, and working procedures to be used in this application. The simulation experiments show that the improvement in the overall productivity by choosing a specific sorting strategy can be significant. The study has helped the management of the involved company to make a decision about the supplier and actually, the suggested proposals are being implemented in practice.