Warehouses have always been an essential part of supply chains, but despite their fundamental role they were not seen as especially mission critical. With the advent of e-commerce, same-day deliveries, omni-channel retailing, and global supply chain disruptions, however, this assessment has changed, and today’s warehouses have evolved to technology-enriched fulfillment factories with strategic relevance. This paper traces the evolution of picker-to-parts and parts-to-picker warehouses from basic systems of the first generation, via extended system setups of the second generation, up to state-of-the-art robotized distribution centers of the third generation. Specifically, we highlight the most influential scientific contributions of the operations research (OR) community within each generation that have supported this evolution over the past 50 years. Beyond the historical perspective, we outline an agenda for the warehousing research of the future.

中文翻译：

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仓储研究 50 年——运筹学视角

仓库一直是供应链的重要组成部分，但尽管它们发挥着基础作用，但它们并不被视为特别关键的任务。然而，随着电子商务、当日送达、全渠道零售和全球供应链中断的出现，这种评估发生了变化，今天的仓库已经发展成为具有战略意义的技术丰富的履行工厂。本文追溯了拾取器到零件和零件到拾取器仓库的演变，从第一代的基本系统，经过第二代的扩展系统设置，一直到第三代最先进的机器人配送中心一代。具体而言，我们重点介绍运筹学 (OR) 界在过去 50 年来支持这一演变的每一代人中最有影响力的科学贡献。除了历史视角之外，我们还概述了未来仓储研究的议程。