Academics / Undergraduate Program / Client Project Challenge / ProjectWarehouse Picking Algorithms and Multiple Objectives
Target recently completed a project with a team of Northwestern students from the IEMS Client Project Challenge class. The student team helped analyze a picking algorithm for a Chicago-based distribution center.
The student team had classes in the appropriate algorithms. However, they hadn’t been to a warehouse before.
“To do good, applied data science work, it is important to see the operation. There is something about seeing the operation that gives you a deeper understanding of the problem. We arranged for a site visit for the students. They asked great questions, took notes, and came away with a better understanding of the problem. It was an important part of this project,” said Bradford Zielke, Senior Director, Data Science.
The team worked with a large data set and developed different algorithm improvement approaches.
“Anthony, Matt, Cem, and Eagan did a great job finishing the project, especially since the 10-week timeframe is quite short considering the size of the problem they are solving. I am very happy with what they delivered. Their ideas and delivered models allow us to extend our current model and explore several opportunities to improve the warehouse's outbound efficiency and use”, said Luke Liang, Lead Data Scientist.
“We gave the team a large problem. The algorithm they built still had some scalability and performance issues that we need to investigate further. But we expected this. Our team plans to integrate their model into our research code base for further evaluation. We were pleased with the outcome,” said Te Yang, Director, Data Science and Supply Chain Optimization.
The Northwestern student team was Matthew Lee, Eagan Notokusumo, Cem Okutan, and Anthony Rematt. The faculty advisor was Professor Chang-Han Rhee.
The full Target team was Luke Liang, Sriram Nutulapati, Branford Zielke, and Te Yang.
About Target:
Target Corporation (Target, the Corporation, or the Company) was incorporated in Minnesota in 1902. Our corporate purpose is to help all families discover the joy of everyday life. We offer to our customers, referred to as "guests," everyday essentials and fashionable, differentiated merchandise at discounted prices. We operate as a single segment designed to enable guests to purchase products seamlessly in stores or through our digital channels. Since 1946, we have given 5 percent of our profit to communities.