This paper develops strategies to control picker blocking that challenge the traditional assumptions regarding the tradeoffs between wide- and narrow-aisle order picking systems. We propose an integrated batching and sequencing procedure called the indexed batching model (IBM), with the...

This paper introduces a blocking model and closed-form expression of two workers traveling with walk speed m (m=integer) in a no-passing circular-passage system of n stations and assuming n=m+2, 2m+2,…. We develop a Discrete-Timed Markov Chain (DTMC) model to capture the workers’ changes of...