Human resource assignment system for distribution centers
| Pages | 64-72 |
| Published date | 01 March 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570210419609 |
| Date | 01 March 2002 |
| Author | Amy Trappey,Pei‐Shun Ho |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Human resource assignment system for distribution
centers
Amy Trappey
Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management,
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Pei-Shun Ho
Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management,
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Introduction
In modern distribution industry, a
distribution center (DC) must increase its
operational efficiency (in both time and
cost) to satisfy its customers' high demands
in low-cost and fast delivery services. With
the most updated automation and
information technology, a DC's performance
has been greatly improved. Among DC's
operational tasks, ``order picking'' is one
of the most important tasks in the
distribution center due to rapidly increasing
labor cost. Work efficiency in order picking
is critical to the improvement of the
entire center's operation, because order
picking often commands 60 percent of a
DC's labor force (Figure 1) (Dong and Chen,
1994).
Thus, the purpose of this research is to
develop an intelligent DC human dispatching
system to improve primarily the order
picking efficiency. In an entire order picking
process, the tasks are often divided into four
major steps, i.e.:
1 Managing the on-line order data.
2 Dividing the orders into order-picking
lists.
3 Dispatching human resource to the
picking lists.
4 Measuring worker's performance in
order-picking processes.
In this research, we will concentrate on the
development of the dispatching algorithm
and its prototyping environment for
assigning order-picking jobs to personnel
resource. In the past, when a transaction
manager receives the order-picking lists, he/
she assigns the jobs to each picking worker
by the common rule-of-thumb subjectively.
The result is often non-optimal and
inefficient. In fact, the human resource (HR)
planning and allocation are rather rough and
primitive. Furthermore, the assignment may
not be fairly distributed to all workers. Some
workers receive heavier picking loads than
others. This research establishes sets of rules
for:
.picking list dividing;
.volume and weight distribution;
.vehicle assignment; and
.worker vs workloads assignment.
The output of the methodology is to assign an
appropriate picking list for every picking
worker at a given time frame. The objectives
are to ensure all workers have equivalent
and adequate workload and to evaluate their
achievement with a standard and fair
performance measure.
Finally, the HR decision support module is
integrated with the online order
management information system. Thus,
accurate ordering data can be integrated
with the order-picking assignment system.
Further, by building critical modules of the
DC decision support systems (DSSs) shown in
Figure 2, one can gradually build complete
DSSs for entire DC operations.
Background
System development methodologies have
evolved from pure technical orientation to an
effort that focuses more on people and
organizational perspectives. Recently, an
increased emphasis on business-process
reengineering (BPR) has been witnessed
(Amit and Belcourt, 1999) to better reflect an
application-oriented information system
development. The evolution reflects both
the increasing maturity of information
technology (IT) and also the business
outlook of firms seeking to use IT for
competitive advantage. A human
resource assignment system (HRAS) is
critical to the successful DC operations
(Hiltrop, 1996).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
[64]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
102/2 [2002] 64±72
#MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 0263-5577]
[DOI 10.1108/02635570210419609]
Keywords
Human resource management,
Decision-support systems,
Order picking
Abstract
Information technology and its
wide range of applications have
begun to make their presence in a
new generation of logistic and
distribution service industry. A
more flexible breed of application
packages is emerging by the
application of fourth generation
language (4GL) technologies,
which are able to provide
foundations for true enterprise
resource planning (ERP). There are
many good reasons for adopting
enterprise-wide resource planning
systems. This research, however,
focuses on the development of a
human resource assignment
module (HR module), usually
considered as an essential part of
an ERP system. This module
provides crucial human resource
data and supports decisions in
human resource utilization in
distribution center operations. We
detail the crucial algorithm for the
HR module, which provides
efficient and effective manpower
management for key logistic/
distribution center operations.
This research is partially
sponsored by National
Science Council and
Industrial Technology
Research Institute in
Taiwan.
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