A knowledge-based decision support framework for wave put-away operations of e-commerce and O2O shipments

Abstract

Warehouse put-away and storage operation is one of the typical internal operations in a warehouse or a distribution center, alongside receiving, picking, packing and shipping. Under today's e-commerce business environment, logistics practitioners are required to efficiently handle e-commerce shipments in warehouses. However, owing to the fundamental differences in the order nature and handling requirements between traditional orders and e-commerce orders, logistics service providers are struggled to handle e-commerce shipments competently. In this paper, a knowledge-based wave put-away decision support system is proposed, which incorporates cloud database for real-time data update and retrieval, and case-based reasoning technique for generating put-away solutions for e-commerce orders based on historical put-away knowledge. The proposed system is validated through a pilot study in a case company. The efficiency of order put-away operation is enhanced by grouping fragmented e-commerce orders at the inbound for performing put-away operations in a wave pattern, which enables logistics practitioners to yield cost-saving and operating efficiency in e-commerce order handling.