This article examines the effect of different product location strategies on the distance
that order pickers must cover to do their job. This distance is an important cost
component in warehousing activities. Our empirical study is based on a real industrial
setting, in which the products are located on both sides of a conveyor belt. We show that
choosing the right product location strategy allows the current picking distance to be
reduced more than 10%. We also propose a post-optimization procedure that can further
reduce picking distances—up to 20% of the current distances. Through a study of the
routing strategy used to dispatch pickers, we demonstrate that solving a simple traveling
salesman problem can further reduce distances up to 13%, compared with the distances
incurred using a predetermined route. We show that reductions of up to 27% compared to
current picking distances are possible if our product location and routing methods are
combined.