th
Proceedings of the 16 International Conference on
Automation & Computing, University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, UK, 11 September 2010
Developing Linear Programming Model to
Improve Warehouse Management Process
Joanna Orzechowska
MSc student of Logistics
Coventry University
Coventry, UK
orzechoj@uni.coventry.ac.uk
Abstract Nowadays any improvement of warehouse
performance might bring a competitive advantage for the
company in respect to highly competitive logistics market.
This ongoing MSc research presents the previous practice
of adopting mathematical programming to improve warehouse
management process. The warehouse layout with a number of
operating constraints was determined for future improvement.
The investigation of the state-of-the-art of warehouse
modeling practice is the first stage of this research. This stage is
necessary in providing an idea about development of linear
programming model and all possible areas of improvement.
The linear programming model development was next stage
of the research. Further the proposed model will be validated
thought a real case study. Sensitivity analysis will be applied in
order to test the affect of changing a number of inventory
policies.
Keywords- Warehouse Management, Linear Programming,
Inventory, Optimisation,
I. INTRODUCTION
There are several reasons to inventory holding. The
most important one is to cover the risk of variety in
demand and supply rate. Therefore, the inventory provides
the buffer between the supply and demand. It enables to
provide high level of service, which is so important for a
company to survive in the market. The high inventory
levels guarantee satisfaction and quick response for
customer demand [15]. Nevertheless, the inventory
holding is not the only function of a warehouse [4]. It
often enables smooth coordination within all supply chain
by supporting the distribution. It is especially needed in
case of international corporations [12].
Although the stock holding and warehouse keeping
bring a lot of benefits for the company, there are high
costs associated with this. This is because the inventory
costs are one of the highest logistics costs. The problem is
that the higher the inventory level is the higher is the
service level and inventory keeping cost. Therefore, the
excellent warehouse management requires achievement of
appropriate inventory level to reach compromise between
benefits of stock keeping and expenses.
Managers are faced with the need to develop an
appropriate replenishment system which enables
maintaining of high service level and reducing inventory
Dr Ammar Al-Bazi
Faculty of Engineering and Knowledge Management
Coventry University
Coventry, UK
Ammar.albazi@coventry.ac.uk
costs at once. Development of such a replenishment
system requires consideration of multiple constraints.
Taking into account only few of them, like the huge
number of orders receiving everyday from customers, the
huge number of supply and products coming to warehouse
every day, the variety of warehouse operations, the
numbers of workers and the unpredictable demand, the
development of cost-effective replenishment policy seems
to be a complex process. The mathematical modeling,
with its Linear Programming and information technology,
brings the possibility to developed supportive tools in
replenishment policy and warehouse management.
In general the purpose of any modeling is a better
comprehension of reality and support in problem solving.
There are many different types of models. The paper
concerns the mathematical models with respect to Linear
Programming Modeling. Apart from better
understanding, the additional propose of Linear
Programming Modeling is to obtain an optimal solution.
The conceptual model will be transferred to
mathematical language in the following way: The aim of
the model will be transferred into an objective function.
The objective function is usually maximising the profit or
minimising the cost. Then, constraints and requirements
will be represented as a system of equations and
inequalities.
II. RESEARCH PROBLEM
The warehouse, which is being investigated, purchases
products from external suppliers and earns money by
selling products to the groceries. The stored products are
perishable therefore can be stored only for a specific
period of time. What is more, every product has different
shelf-live period what makes the replenishment
management even more complex. The warehouse tries to
satisfy the unpredicted demand, which requires safety
stock. Nevertheless, the safety stock, which enables to
maintain high service level, results in higher inventory
costs and deterioration costs.
The products stored in the warehouse are categorised
into five groups. The current research concerns only one
of the groups.
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 III. WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT PREVIOUS PRACTICE
Although many articles and models improving
inventory management have appeared in recent time, there
is relatively little literature on Linear Programming
models of inventory or a warehouse. What is more, the
majority of those papers present the inventory
optimization together with production planning while the
considered, in this paper, warehouse is a independent
entity and does not produce anything. Nevertheless, each
mathematical model or even simulation related to
inventory is still supportive for the research.
One of approaches in warehouse mathematical
modeling with respect to inventory levels is an Economic
Order Quantity model (EOQ). The example of one of the
simplest EOQ models is presented in [8]. The aim of this
model is a minimisation of costs by optimising the order
quantity. The model takes into account ordering costs (the
stock is ordered from outside supplier) and holding costs
only to obtain the minimum total inventory costs as a
result of achieving the optimal order quantity. None
additional costs and constraints, which usually exist in real
warehouse, are considered. Therefore, the author of the
paper presented very basic and non-realistic model. What
is more, the model is fully deterministic as a result of the
fact that both the demand and the lead-time are known
with certainty. Nevertheless, this simple model was used
as a prototype in developing more advanced and more
realistic models by many others. Few of them are
discussed below.
[1] proposed the EOQ model with fixed shelf-life and
a declining demand rate. The authors have taken into
account the following assumptions: the warehouse stores
one type of product only, the shelf-life period is fixed, the
products which passed the expiry date cannot be sold and
the order is placed only when the need occurs. Also the
lead time is constant and known, shortages are forbidden,
and the demand rate is deterministic, decreasing over-
time, expressed as a polynomial function and is dependent
on the remaining normalised time. The model is
maximising the profit and minimising the costs taking into
account the mentioned assumptions. The model presented
in this paper is significantly more advanced and provides
notably better approach to reality than the original basic
EOQ model. Nevertheless, it is still far from realistic
modeling of real inventory policy. It is because in real
warehouse usually more than one product is stored, the
shortages occur and demand is not deterministic. Also in
existing warehouses many additional aspects need to be
taken into consideration.
Many papers based on EOQ, focused on additional
assumptions and aspects, have been published. [3], for
example, have presented the EOQ considering the firm
deterioration of goods with respect to credit policy. The
inventory management and EOQ has been analysed by
several authors in relation to deterioration of products and
discounts for deteriorated products, e.g. [5] or [10] dialed
with this problem. Also few authors incorporated delivery
to customers transportation costs into theirs models (e.g.
[2] or [9]). [6] developed the EOQ-based model with
special focus on recovery inventory remanufacturing
system. All of mentioned models have taken into account
one product only.
[7] developed EOQ- based model for multiple
products with different schedules order for inventory
policy considering the variable production costs. The
demand is stochastic, the order and holding costs are fixed
and the production demand rate is deterministic. The
authors, basing of the previous one, have developed
another model applying the postponement policy as the
postponement policy modeling is a main purpose of the
paper. The model is a good approach of a real warehouse.
The purpose of [11] is to evaluate the existing
inventory policy and reduce total costs of existing
warehouse. The author takes into account the multi-
products models with limited storage area capacity. Many
different types of costs are considered to develop the
model. This are replenishment costs, picking costs,
inventory holding costs, reception costs and shortage costs
which occur when the warehouse is not able to satisfy
customers demand. A few constraints are taken into
account like: storage capacity or costs capacity. The
demand is variable and the supply lead time is
deterministic.
In order to minimise total warehouses costs, the best
ordering policy was developed by [4] by optimising the
amount and rate of ordering. The authors took into
account the procurement costs, the holding costs and the
shortage costs.
[14] developed the model for sequence of n time
periods minimising total n-periods costs associated with
finished goods inventory, holding only one product in a
warehouse. The purpose of this paper was to research the
profits from Just-in-Time replenishment system
implementation. Firstly, author presented single decision
model. The decision about the minimal amount of
purchased products satisfying the demand is created in the
period n=0. The author concludes that the more periods
were considered (the larger the n was) the higher the costs
of the inventory were. Therefore, the dynamic model, with
decision making before each period begun, was
developed. In this Just-in-Time model the reduction of
costs was significant.
IV. AIM, OBJECTIVES AND MATHODILOGY
The aim of the research is to develop Linear
Programming Model with a view to improve the
performance of warehouse management process. In order
to deliver the aim of the research project, the following
objectives have been established:
To identify the current practice of mathematical
modeling of warehouse management.
To indentify the existing warehouse
management practice with special focus on
replenishment policy.
To develop a Linear Programming Model
supporting the replenishment system.
To verify the developed Linear Programming
Model.
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 To run a number of managerial scenarios in one and involves higher levels of racks. It is dedicated to
order to improve the current practice. store products in pallets only. The forward area is located
in the lowest levels of racks so that products can be
First three objectives were already met. To satisfy each reached by pickers from the floor level. In the forward
objective, the relevant tools and techniques are identified areas there are store separated products which are
as follows: systematically replenished by unloading of pallets from
The semi-unstructured interviews with warehouse the reserve area.
manager and observation of warehouse processes brought Picking is conducted manually by pickers collecting
the knowledge necessary to understand and identify the goods from the forward area. Pickers are following the
current warehouse management policy. snake path while picking, what is shown in the figure 1.
Essential background of the issue was obtained from
written publications like journals, reports and books in
respect to operational research and linear programming The
problems in terms of warehouse management. lightest
Next step will be the collection of appropriate products
warehouse data. The researcher will conduct semi-
structured interviews with warehouse key employees.
Furthermore, the inspections of warehouse processes will
be accomplished. The warehouse historical records review
and other quantitative data capturing will be conducted as
well. This will be needed to develop the model and to
obtain the results.
The Linear Programming Model with its Excel Solver The
representation will be adopted as a methodology to solve heaviest
the problem. Also it will be applied to a development of products
more scenarios and comparison of results. The sensibility
Figure 1. Snake path in picking
analysis will be the methodology used to develop more
scenarios.
They pass the same path regardless of the amount and
location of products which needs to be picked because of
safety reasons. Thanks to this and the fixed location of
V. CASE STUDY products the goods are always picked and put in cages
The company, which is being researched, is a decreasingly from the heaviest to the lightest in respect to
warehouse, storing perishable products, including care of sensitive light products. Therefore the demand of
refrigerated and frozen food, requiring storage in fridges fragile products on the bottom of cage does not occur
or freezers, ambient food products, drinks and other while picking. The voice picking system enables easy and
products of small grocery assortment like tobacco. fast location and picking of products.
The warehouse is provided by external suppliers in Outbound involves dispatching, loading goods to
regular periods. The warehouse purchases products and vehicles and shipping. The figure 2 presents the
sells it with appropriate profit to its customers represented warehouse layout
usually by nets of small retail groceries. The warehouse
also provides third-part logistics service holding stock for
external companies.
The work in the warehouse is split to three, eight-hour
shifts; therefore the warehouse works 24 hours per day.
There are four main processes in the warehouse: receiving
on the goods-in, storage in the storage area. Receiving
division involves following activities: unloading the
lorries, counting the products to check if the number of
delivered products is correct, updating the level of goods
in the warehouse in the warehouse management system
and allocating goods in storage area in appropriate
allocations.
There are three storage areas: chilled, frozen and
ambient. In each of them the product storage location is
assigned to the products in appropriate storage areas
decreasingly with product weight.
Each of racks is split into forward and reserve areas.
The reserve area is much more extended than the forward Figure 2. Warehouse layout

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 VI. PROPOSED LP MODEL - variable holding costs of product i per unit.
The proposed model is a multi-period and multi- variable costs associated with purchasing products by
product model of perishable products taking into account warehouse for product i per unit.
the discount while passing the display date by products. constant space required to storage one unit of for
The demand is unknown. The costs of purchasing and product i
storage of products are known per unit. - variable percentage of products sold without
discount,
This research is ongoing and the objective function of
the model will maximize total net profit associated with (1- ) percentage of products sold with discount,
sail of products taking in to account purchase and storage
costs. - constant discount for each of m products
The constraints will involve: constant budget for each of n perios
constant storage capacity
Satisfaction of demand constant minimum inventory level of product i
Storage area capacity constant minimum order quantity of product i in
Products size period j
Budget constant maximum order quantity of product i
minimum safety stock level in period j
minimum order quantity
maximum order quantity
Models explanation is presented below.
The research is ongoing MSc dissertation and the
validation of the model using real data have not been Objective function (1):
done yet. Therefore non results and sensitivity analysis is The total gross profit of the warehouse is represented
presented in this paper. Nevertheless the model is in objective function as follow:
expected to support warehouse management concerning
the order quantities decisions. The purpose of this model
is to maximize total net profit by finding the optimal
order quantities for each of products in each of As it can be noticed the total gross profit is divided in to
considered periods. two partial profits:
(a) and (b)
Find maximum of the function:
The part (a) represents the profit in period j while
selling products i with normal price . The part
(1) (b) describes the profit while selling
products with discounted price .
The total warehouse costs are represented by
subject to: (7)
Where are holding costs
and are purchasing costs.
Therefore the objective function (1) maximize the total
net profit.

constrain (2):
The constrain (2) concerns the space capacity of the
warehouse.
The represents an inventory level
for all products in period j.
Where: The is a space taken by all stored
products in period j, which is limited by the warehouse
product number space capacity S. The S is constant and does not depend
- period number on period.
order quantity of product i in period j to the
warehouse the decision variable constrain (3):
demand (the amount of sold products) for product i The constrain (3) concerns the budget capacity,
in period j. The demand is random. where, according to (7),
- variable inventory level for product i in period j. are total
variable selling price of one unit of product i.

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warehouse costs and is a budget capacity in period j.
The budget capacity is constant in each of n periods.
constrain (4):
The constrain (4) represents the need of safety stock
holding.
is an inventory level of product i in
period j which is limited by the minimum inventory level
of product i. The is constant for any of m
products.
constrain (5):
The constrain (5) sais that the , the quantity of
products i in period j ordered by warehouse is limited,
and does exist the minimum and maximum order
quantities, respectively and , for each of
products in each of periods.
Constrain (6):
The amount of purchased products cannot be less than
zero.
However the optimal order quantity models have
appeared before, the majority of them take in to account
only a few of aspects considered in this research. As it
can be noticed while literature review many of papers
present one-products models or one-period models or
both, one-products and one-period only. Current research
is devoted to multi-products and multi-period model.
Additionally the demand, prices and inventory level
variations are allowed in the model which was not often
was done in different papers. What is more, the discount
for deteriorated products is considered while developing
the current model.
VII. FUTURE WORK
The linear programming model will be validated
through a mid-sized warehouse located in Coventry. All
outputs will be analysed and discussed through a
sensitivity analysis study.
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