2301. Don’t let your breaks go to waste: The Waste-Performance-Tradeoff-Problem
Invited abstract in session FA-9: Renewable gases and supply chains , stream Energy and Sustainability.
Friday, 8:45-10:15Room: H15
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Lennart Zey
|
| Bergische Universität Wuppertal | |
| 2. | Dirk Briskorn
|
| University of Wuppertal |
Abstract
In e-commerce warehouses, automated packaging machines are utilized in the final processing
stages to efficiently pack customer orders. In this context, decision-makers in planning and
procurement must balance conflicting objectives: optimizing carton sizes to reduce packaging
waste while simultaneously managing the increased operational complexity and performance
losses associated with a more diverse range of packaging options. In this paper, we examine
so-called blocking machines, where multiple packaging devices are arranged in sequence, each
equipped with a specific carton size. Incoming customer orders are transferred to the devices via a
conveyor belt and can only be processed by devices with appropriately sized cartons. We introduce
the resulting optimization problem, which involves selecting a set of carton sizes, assigning
customer orders to these devices, and sequencing the orders. We analyze the computational
complexity and present an exact dynamic programming approach that runs in polynomial time.
Our method allows to analyze the tradeoff between waste generation and packaging speed. We
demonstrate that our approach efficiently finds optimal solutions for real-world instances and
provide further insights into the impact of different carton selection strategies.
Keywords
- Supply Chain Management
- Scheduling
- Logistics
Status: accepted
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