IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v276y2019i3p796-815.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Automated sortation conveyors: A survey from an operational research perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Boysen, Nils
  • Briskorn, Dirk
  • Fedtke, Stefan
  • Schmickerath, Marcel

Abstract

Global trends such as just-in-time, containerization, and e-commerce have led to an ever increasing freight volume to be transported under tight delivery schedules. Many supply chains, thus, apply fully-automated sorting systems as one basic component of their distribution processes. Examples range from baggage handling in airports, over parcels sorted by tilt tray conveyors in distribution centers of the postal service industry, up to batches of picking orders isolated in the warehouses of e-commerce retailers. This paper surveys the scientific literature on all kinds of fully-automated conveyor-based sorting systems from an operational research perspective. We describe the wide range of applications and their different sorting systems, define their joint decision problems to be solved when designing and operating a sorter, review the literature, and identify future research challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Fedtke, Stefan & Schmickerath, Marcel, 2019. "Automated sortation conveyors: A survey from an operational research perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(3), pages 796-815.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:276:y:2019:i:3:p:796-815
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2018.08.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221718306945
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.08.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Hochrein & Christoph H. Glock, 2012. "Systematic literature reviews in purchasing and supply management research: a tertiary study," International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(4), pages 215-245.
    2. Markus Frey & Rainer Kolisch & Christian Artigues, 2017. "Column Generation for Outbound Baggage Handling at Airports," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 1226-1241, November.
    3. Kim, Gukhwa & Kim, Junbeom & Chae, Junjae, 2017. "Balancing the baggage handling performance of a check-in area shared by multiple airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 31-49.
    4. Buijs, Paul & Vis, Iris F.A. & Carlo, Héctor J., 2014. "Synchronization in cross-docking networks: A research classification and framework," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(3), pages 593-608.
    5. Boysen, Nils & Fliedner, Malte, 2010. "Cross dock scheduling: Classification, literature review and research agenda," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 413-422, December.
    6. Gerardo Berbeglia & Jean-François Cordeau & Irina Gribkovskaia & Gilbert Laporte, 2007. "Rejoinder on: Static pickup and delivery problems: a classification scheme and survey," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 15(1), pages 45-47, July.
    7. Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Emde, Simon, 2017. "Parts-to-picker based order processing in a rack-moving mobile robots environment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(2), pages 550-562.
    8. Alena Otto & Nils Boysen & Armin Scholl & Rico Walter, 2017. "Ergonomic workplace design in the fast pick area," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 39(4), pages 945-975, October.
    9. Briskorn, Dirk & Emde, Simon & Boysen, Nils, 2017. "Scheduling shipments in closed-loop sortation conveyors," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 109728, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    10. Mohammad Taghi Assadi & Mohsen Bagheri, 2016. "Scheduling trucks in a multiple-door cross docking system with unequal ready times," European Journal of Industrial Engineering, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 103-125.
    11. Huang, Edward & Mital, Pratik & Goetschalckx, Marc & Wu, Kan, 2016. "Optimal assignment of airport baggage unloading zones to outgoing flights," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 110-122.
    12. Dorndorf, Ulrich & Drexl, Andreas & Nikulin, Yury & Pesch, Erwin, 2007. "Flight gate scheduling: State-of-the-art and recent developments," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 326-334, June.
    13. Werners, Brigitte & Wülfing, Thomas, 2010. "Robust optimization of internal transports at a parcel sorting center operated by Deutsche Post World Net," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(2), pages 419-426, March.
    14. M. Eric Johnson & Tom Lofgren, 1994. "Model Decomposition Speeds Distribution Center Design," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 95-106, October.
    15. Kevin R. Gue, 1999. "The Effects of Trailer Scheduling on the Layout of Freight Terminals," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 419-428, November.
    16. de Koster, Rene & Le-Duc, Tho & Roodbergen, Kees Jan, 2007. "Design and control of warehouse order picking: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(2), pages 481-501, October.
    17. Gerardo Berbeglia & Jean-François Cordeau & Irina Gribkovskaia & Gilbert Laporte, 2007. "Static pickup and delivery problems: a classification scheme and survey," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 15(1), pages 1-31, July.
    18. Boysen, Nils & Fedtke, Stefan & Weidinger, Felix, 2017. "Truck Scheduling in the Postal Service Industry," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 126193, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    19. John J. Bartholdi & Kevin R. Gue, 2000. "Reducing Labor Costs in an LTL Crossdocking Terminal," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(6), pages 823-832, December.
    20. Gu, Jinxiang & Goetschalckx, Marc & McGinnis, Leon F., 2007. "Research on warehouse operation: A comprehensive review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(1), pages 1-21, February.
    21. Nils Boysen & Stefan Fedtke & Felix Weidinger, 2017. "Truck Scheduling in the Postal Service Industry," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 723-736, May.
    22. Van Belle, Jan & Valckenaers, Paul & Cattrysse, Dirk, 2012. "Cross-docking: State of the art," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 827-846.
    23. Hande Yaman & Oya Ekin Karasan & Bahar Y. Kara, 2012. "Release Time Scheduling and Hub Location for Next-Day Delivery," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(4), pages 906-917, August.
    24. Dirk Briskorn & Simon Emde & Nils Boysen, 2017. "Scheduling shipments in closed-loop sortation conveyors," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 25-42, February.
    25. Boysen, Nils & Fliedner, Malte & Jaehn, Florian & Pesch, Erwin, 2012. "Shunting yard operations: Theoretical aspects and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 1-14.
    26. Jérémie Gallien & Théophane Weber, 2010. "To Wave or Not to Wave? Order Release Policies for Warehouses with an Automated Sorter," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 642-662, September.
    27. Aguilera-Venegas, Gabriel & Galán-García, José L. & Mérida-Casermeiro, Enrique & Rodríguez-Cielos, Pedro, 2014. "An accelerated-time simulation of baggage traffic in an airport terminal," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 58-66.
    28. Boysen, Nils & Stephan, Konrad, 2016. "A survey on single crane scheduling in automated storage/retrieval systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 254(3), pages 691-704.
    29. Cheng, T. C. E. & Ding, Q. & Lin, B. M. T., 2004. "A concise survey of scheduling with time-dependent processing times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(1), pages 1-13, January.
    30. Janny M. Y. Leung & Guoqing Zhang & Xiaoguang Yang & Raymond Mak & Kokin Lam, 2004. "Optimal Cyclic Multi-Hoist Scheduling: A Mixed Integer Programming Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 965-976, December.
    31. Vis, Iris F.A., 2006. "Survey of research in the design and control of automated guided vehicle systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(3), pages 677-709, May.
    32. Stefan Fedtke & Nils Boysen, 2017. "Layout Planning of Sortation Conveyors in Parcel Distribution Centers," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(1), pages 3-18, February.
    33. Markus Frey & Ferdinand Kiermaier & Rainer Kolisch, 2017. "Optimizing Inbound Baggage Handling at Airports," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 1210-1225, November.
    34. Nils Boysen & Malte Fliedner & Florian Jaehn & Erwin Pesch, 2013. "A Survey on Container Processing in Railway Yards," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 312-329, August.
    35. Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Emde, Simon, 2017. "Parts-to-picker based order processing in a rack-moving mobile robots environment," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 85774, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    36. Ladier, Anne-Laure & Alpan, Gülgün, 2016. "Cross-docking operations: Current research versus industry practice," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 145-162.
    37. Khaled Al-Sultan & Yavuz Bozer, 1998. "Network configuration and machine layout in fixed-path material handling systems," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 76(0), pages 21-54, January.
    38. Abdelghany, Ahmed & Abdelghany, Khaled & Narasimhan, Ram, 2006. "Scheduling baggage-handling facilities in congested airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 76-81.
    39. Laporte, Gilbert, 1992. "The vehicle routing problem: An overview of exact and approximate algorithms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 345-358, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Weckenborg, Christian & Schumacher, Patrick & Thies, Christian & Spengler, Thomas S., 2024. "Flexibility in manufacturing system design: A review of recent approaches from Operations Research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 315(2), pages 413-441.
    2. Bock, Felix & Bruhn, Henning, 2021. "Case study on scheduling cyclic conveyor belts," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. James C. Chen & Tzu-Li Chen & Ping-Hsuan Wu, 2024. "Truck scheduling with fixed outbound departures in a closed-loop conveyor system with shortcuts," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 1107-1156, September.
    4. Boysen, Nils & Stephan, Konrad & Schwerdfeger, Stefan, 2024. "Order consolidation in warehouses: The loop sorter scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(2), pages 459-472.
    5. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René & Füßler, David, 2021. "The forgotten sons: Warehousing systems for brick-and-mortar retail chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 361-381.
    6. Boysen, Nils & Schwerdfeger, Stefan & W． Ulmer, Marlin, 2023. "Robotized sorting systems: Large-scale scheduling under real-time conditions with limited lookahead," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(2), pages 582-596.
    7. Xu, Xianhao & Chen, Yuerong & Zou, Bipan & Gong, Yeming, 2022. "Assignment of parcels to loading stations in robotic sorting systems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    8. Khir, Reem & Erera, Alan & Toriello, Alejandro, 2023. "Robust planning of sorting operations in express delivery systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(2), pages 615-631.
    9. Ashraf, Muhammad Hasan & Chen, Yuwen & Yalcin, Mehmet G., 2022. "Minding Braess Paradox amid third-party logistics hub capacity expansion triggered by demand surge," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René & Weidinger, Felix, 2019. "Warehousing in the e-commerce era: A survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(2), pages 396-411.
    2. Boysen, Nils & Schwerdfeger, Stefan & Stephan, Konrad, 2023. "A review of synchronization problems in parts-to-picker warehouses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(3), pages 1374-1390.
    3. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René & Füßler, David, 2021. "The forgotten sons: Warehousing systems for brick-and-mortar retail chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 361-381.
    4. Boysen, Nils & Fedtke, Stefan & Weidinger, Felix, 2018. "Optimizing automated sorting in warehouses: The minimum order spread sequencing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(1), pages 386-400.
    5. Boysen, Nils & Schwerdfeger, Stefan & W． Ulmer, Marlin, 2023. "Robotized sorting systems: Large-scale scheduling under real-time conditions with limited lookahead," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(2), pages 582-596.
    6. Hans Corsten & Ferdinand Becker & Hagen Salewski, 2020. "Integrating truck and workforce scheduling in a cross-dock: analysis of different workforce coordination policies," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 207-237, March.
    7. Buijs, Paul & Vis, Iris F.A. & Carlo, Héctor J., 2014. "Synchronization in cross-docking networks: A research classification and framework," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(3), pages 593-608.
    8. Nils Boysen & Konrad Stephan & Felix Weidinger, 2019. "Manual order consolidation with put walls: the batched order bin sequencing problem," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 8(2), pages 169-193, June.
    9. Khir, Reem & Erera, Alan & Toriello, Alejandro, 2023. "Robust planning of sorting operations in express delivery systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(2), pages 615-631.
    10. Tadumadze, Giorgi & Boysen, Nils & Emde, Simon & Weidinger, Felix, 2019. "Integrated truck and workforce scheduling to accelerate the unloading of trucks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(1), pages 343-362.
    11. Wolff, Pascal & Emde, Simon & Pfohl, Hans-Christian, 2021. "Internal resource requirements: The better performance metric for truck scheduling?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    12. Boysen, Nils & Stephan, Konrad & Schwerdfeger, Stefan, 2024. "Order consolidation in warehouses: The loop sorter scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(2), pages 459-472.
    13. David Füßler & Nils Boysen, 2019. "High-performance order processing in picking workstations," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 8(1), pages 65-90, March.
    14. Gelareh, Shahin & Glover, Fred & Guemri, Oualid & Hanafi, Saïd & Nduwayo, Placide & Todosijević, Raca, 2020. "A comparative study of formulations for a cross-dock door assignment problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Li, Mingjie & Hao, Jin-Kao & Wu, Qinghua, 2024. "A flow based formulation and a reinforcement learning based strategic oscillation for cross-dock door assignment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(2), pages 473-492.
    16. Dirk Briskorn & Simon Emde & Nils Boysen, 2017. "Scheduling shipments in closed-loop sortation conveyors," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 25-42, February.
    17. James C. Chen & Tzu-Li Chen & Ping-Hsuan Wu, 2024. "Truck scheduling with fixed outbound departures in a closed-loop conveyor system with shortcuts," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 1107-1156, September.
    18. Ladier, Anne-Laure & Alpan, Gülgün, 2016. "Cross-docking operations: Current research versus industry practice," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 145-162.
    19. Russell Allgor & Tolga Cezik & Daniel Chen, 2023. "Algorithm for Robotic Picking in Amazon Fulfillment Centers Enables Humans and Robots to Work Together Effectively," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 266-282, July.
    20. Wang, Haibo & Alidaee, Bahram, 2019. "The multi-floor cross-dock door assignment problem: Rising challenges for the new trend in logistics industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 30-47.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:276:y:2019:i:3:p:796-815. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.