Boxture is capable of dynamically routing (and re-routing) you to all bin-locations using the shortest path. This is done using the TSP algorithm. This algorithm many revolves around cost, the cost to move from bin-location to bin-location.
Travel cost
The travel cost to move from bin-location to bin-location is calculated by looking at how much you physically need to move, whereby we consider the following factors (in order of significance):
- zone: moving from zone to zone is very expensive (you might need reachers)
- walkway: every two opposing aisles are in the same walkway, moving to the next walkway is expensive
- rack
- shelf
- bin-location
Problems
Though this approach renders fairly good results, it doesn't come without problems.
Picking
Pick-list
We sort an individual pick-list based on the shortest route to visit all bin-locations. We can optionally start at a default bin-location. This can be configured in navigating to [Admin] > [Locations] > [Your location] > [Bin management tab] and search/select a bin location from the [Pick Start Bin Location] drop down.
Waves
When the picker first gets assigned a pick-list from a wave, they need to continue picking that wave until it's done. When the picker completes each pick-list the system will find a pick-list closest to the bin-location you just finished picking from.