Abstract: Synergistic effects on picking,storing,and routing policies are discussed in this paper.Three policies are proposed for solving the problem.Algorithm for finding the actual picking distances under different routing policies is presented.With simulation,comparative analysis is carried out and the performance for the three policies has been evaluated.Results show that:1) order batching policy has great impacts on the time saving of order picking; 2) classbased storing policy results in shorter orderpicking route distance than that by random storing; and 3) the effect of routing policy on the reduction of orderpicking route distance is weaker than that obtained by either order batching policy or classbased storage policy.Therefore,order batching policy or classbased storage policy should be chosen with higher priority,while routing policy could be then used to further optimize the results.  

Key words: order picking, routing, storing, synergistic effect