Costs and opportunities of moving picking activities upstream in distribution networks: A case study from the beverage industry

The work addresses the reconfiguration of distribution networks where order picking activities have a significant impact on the system performance. In particular, the effects of moving picking activities upstream in the network are investigated taking into consideration an actual case study from the beverage industry. The paper presents a comparison of the main cost factors characterizing two different configurations: the “downstream picking configuration” (AS-IS Configuration), with picking activities executed at intermediate facilities, and the “upstream picking configuration” (TO-BE Configuration), where picking activities are performed upstream in the network at a central distribution center. The actual desirability of the shift to the “upstream picking configuration” is shown, and considerations about the opportunity of automating picking operations are given.