Table Of ContentSpringer Theses
Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research
Xiaolong Guo
Storage Policies
and Maintenance
Support Strategies in
Warehousing
Systems
Springer Theses
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Xiaolong Guo
Storage Policies
and Maintenance Support
Strategies in Warehousing
Systems
Doctoral Thesis accepted by
the University of Science and Technology of China,
’
Hefei, People s Republic of China
123
Author Supervisor
Dr. XiaolongGuo Prof. Yugang Yu
University of Science andTechnology Schoolof Management
ofChina University of Science andTechnology
Hefei ofChina
People’sRepublic ofChina Hefei
People’sRepublic ofChina
ISSN 2190-5053 ISSN 2190-5061 (electronic)
SpringerTheses
ISBN978-981-10-1447-5 ISBN978-981-10-1448-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1448-2
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016939576
©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaSingapore2016
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Parts of this thesis have been published in the following journal articles:
1. Yugang Yu, René de Koster, Xiaolong Guo*. Class-based storage witha finite
number of items: Using more classes is not always better. Production and
OperationsManagement24(8):1235–1247,2015.[Reproducedwithpermission
from John Wiley and Sons]
2. Xiaolong Guo,YugangYu*,RenédeKoster.Impact ofrequiredstoragespace
onstoragepolicyperformanceinaunit-loadwarehouse.InternationalJournalof
Production Research 54(8): 2405–2418, 2016. [Reproduced with permission
from Taylor & Francis]
*Corresponding author
To my father, my wife, and the memory of my
mother
’
Supervisor s Foreword
The statement that “more classes will provide higher performance of warehousing
systemsunderclass-basedstoragepolicy”hasbeenageneralconclusionexistedin
the field of industrial and production engineering during the past several decades.
Full turnover-based storage is claimed to provide the best system performance by
creatingdifferentclassesforeachproduct.However,thiswell-knownconclusionis
rarely adopted in practice, and three- to five-class-based storage is usually imple-
mented.Thisinconsistencyhasbeenanunsolvedproblemduringthepast40years,
and no literature has theoretically demonstrated that too many classes degrade the
system performance. This motivated us to investigate assumptions in the literature
leading to this inconsistency. The cause of the inconsistency appears to be the
assumptionthat“thespaceneededperstorageclassequalsthesumoftheaverage
inventory levels of the items in the class”. However, when items arrive in a batch
quantity,sufficientspaceshouldbeavailabletostorealltheitemsofthesameclass.
Therefore, items sharing a storage class need more space than just their average
stocklevel.Ifthenumberofstorageclassesincreases,thenumberofitemsperclass
decreases and more space per item is needed on average, as the opportunity for
space sharing decreases. This increases the average travel time for storing and
retrieving items, and finally offsets the travel-time reduction, resulting from
dividing items over a large number of classes according to their turnover. This
trade-offwasoverlookedintheexistingliteraturewheremostscholarsassumedthat
the required storage space per item equals its average inventory level.
In addition to warehousing assignment policies, the maintenance support strat-
egyforassembledequipmentisanotherhottopicinthefieldofmanufacturingand
operations management. The performance-based contract (PBC) emerges as a new
service model replacing the resource-based contract (RBC) in the after-market
service supply chains. Existing studies indicate that system availability will be
increased by 25–40 % under PBC than that under RBC. Most of previous studies
aim to find the optimal contract terms leading to the minimal maintenance cost
under a given availability target. However, enterprises in practice aim to obtain
maximalprofitinsteadofminimalmaintenancecost.Tothebestofourknowledge,
ix
x Supervisor’sForeword
no study has yet discussed after-sales maintenance contract considering the
profit-maximizing target from the viewpoint of the profitability of the system.
Takingintoaccountthebackgroundofthesetworesearchtopics,Dr.Guostarted
hisPh.D.,expectingtofindsomeanswersinhisthesis.First,relaxingofthepopular
assumption of conventional research. Dr. Guo studied the class-based storage
policyconsideringafinitenumberofitemsinstore.Theresultsindicatethatthree-
tofive-class-basedstoragepolicywillbeoptimalforwarehousingsystemsoperated
inasingle-commandmode.Second,PBCwasstudiedwiththeconsiderationofthe
profitability of the maintained equipment. Results show that all customers will
provide the same cost reimbursement for service supplier when the shared spare
inventory is established. It also indicates that the maintenance service supplier can
benefitfrompoolingthespareinventoryonlywhentheunitcostofitssparepartis
sufficiently low. His work provides us with important insights and suggestions for
warehousing operations management and maintenance support management from
both theoretical and practical perspectives.
Hefei Prof. Yugang Yu
March 2016
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor,
Prof. Yugang Yu, for his patient guidance, continuous encouragement, and finan-
cial support during my Ph.D. His profound scientific attainments and rigorous
attitude in academic research encouraged me to challenge the significant scientific
problems. My ability to find and solve scientific problems extremely improved
during the process. Professor Yu gave me the attentive care and guidance on the
way of my growth in academic research, from proposing the research ideas to
formulatingthemodels,extractingtheinsights,andsummarizingthecontributions.
Itwouldhavenotbeenpossibleformetocompletethethesiswithouthisboundless
support. During my Ph.D., Prof. Yu encouraged me to present research results on
academicconferencesandtocommunicatewithrenownedscholarsinrelatedfields.
Particularly, the visit to Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus
University from March to September 2013 is the most important academic expe-
rienceforme,anditwillbeapreciousfortuneinmyacademiccareer.Myattitude
in research and skill of academic English are significantly improved during this
visit.IwouldalsoliketotakethisopportunitytoextendmygratitudetoProf.Liang
Liang who provided me the first opportunity to start my academic career, and
Dr. Liuyi Ling who guided me to accomplish my first research article.
My gratitude also goes to Prof. René de Koster who hosted and supervised me
during my visit at RSM. His open-minded, enthusiastic, and rigorous attitude in
academicresearchstrengthenedmydeterminationtobeaprofessionalscholar.The
helpofDr.NimaZaerpour,Dr.AmirHosseinGharehgozli,Dr.DongLi,andother
colleagues at RSM are very grateful.
Iamthankfulforthesufficientencouragementandselflesshelpfromprofessors
andresearchersfromdifferentcountriesanduniversities.Therearemanyofthemto
name for appreciation. They are Prof. Zhimin Huang from Adelphi University,
Prof. Jinfeng Yue from Middle Tennessee State University, and Dr. Sean Zhou
from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Colleagues of the School of
Management,UniversityofScienceandTechnologyofChinaincludingProf.Feng
Yang, Prof. Gongbing Bi, Dr. Shaofu Du, Dr. Tengfei Nie, and members of
xi
