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Chinese Journal of Management Science ›› 2018, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (4): 78-87.doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.04.009

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A T-type Replenishment Strategy for Optimizing Logistics Operations of Retail Industry

TIAN Xin1,2, LUO Chun-lin2,3, WANG Shou-yang2,4, CHEN Qing-hong1,5, LU Mei-hong5   

  1. 1. Research Center on Fictitious Economy and Data Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;
    2. School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;
    3. School of Information Technology, Jiangxi University of Finance & Economics, Nanchang 330013, China;
    4. Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;
    5. Shanghai HEADING Information Engineering Co., Ltd, Shanghai 201112, China
  • Received:2017-01-13 Revised:2018-02-23 Online:2018-04-20 Published:2018-06-22

Abstract: At present, large and medium-sized retail logistics centers adopt three-dimensional shelves to enhance warehouse capacity, with hundreds of thousands of freight lots in different sizes. Each day, they need to handle the operations of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). How to store these goods rationally and to replenish them to the picking lots efficiently are the key factors influencing the operational efficiency of the logistics centers.In computer science and management science, there are many approaches to store and replenish the products, but these methods are hard to implement in reality, especially when the number of SKUs is huge.Based on the virtual business theory, a brand new T-type replenishment strategy, i.e., taking the fixed picking lots as the base points, putting the storing good son shelves in T-shape and replenishing the goods is proposed to the picking lots with the "first in, first out" rule and the "closer and more priority" principle. Compared with the conventional replenishment strategy, the T-type replenishment strategy not only pays attention to the distances between the picking lot and the storing lots for a single commodity, but also emphasizes overall reasonableness of the storage of goods. The T-type replenishment strategy is a simple search algorithm that integrates easiness-to-implement, low operational cost and quick response capability, which can reduce storage and replenishment operations to achieve efficiency and profit growth.Comparing the operations data of a retailing firm in Shanghai, which is one of the top 100 retailing firms, before and after implementing the T-type replenishment strategy, it is found that the logistics operation efficiency has been greatly improved. The T-type replenishment strategy has been successfully applied by a batch of large-scale retailing logistics centers in the practice of information transformation, and significantly increased their economic benefits, which helps promote the commercial development and social progress in our country.

Key words: T-type replenishment strategy, picking, warehouse, logistics management

CLC Number: