Properly organising a warehouse layout is critical to optimising operations and minimising the unnecessary movement of materials. By strategically optimising the storage of products according to demand, organisations can significantly improve productivity, reduce the time required for order fulfilment, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction.
Implementing efficient stock management practices plays a pivotal role in driving the overall success of a warehouse operation. Critical considerations when deciding on an appropriate storage system include:
- The nature and characteristics of the products and unit loads held.
- Ensuring efficient utilisation of the available warehouse space.
- Quick and easy access to stocks carried.
- Compatibility with information system requirements.
- Maintenance of stock condition and integrity.
- Warehouse staff health and safety.
- The costs of a warehouse system.
The Importance of Evaluation
Evaluating storage system capital costs is crucial, as it implies going beyond the fundamental equipment required to establish the storage system. Additional costs that must be brought into consideration include:
- Fire protection.
- Security of inventory.
- Staff health and safety.
- Workforce needed to operate a warehouse.
- Information management systems.
- Availability of space or land.
- General building services.
One way of classifying storage systems could be:
- Bulk storage for solids, such as silos, bunkers, and stockpiles.
- Loose item storage, ex-casting and fabrications held loose on the floor.
- Pallet storage systems.
- Small item storage for individual items or small unit loads.
- Nonstandard unit loads such as long lengths of metals or conduits.
Efficient stock management relies heavily on strategically placing items in a warehouse according to the demand for inventory, but not to the detriment of causing congestion when accessing the inventory to replenish pick-face locations or picking inventory for order assembly and dispatch.
The crucial objective is to reduce the distance that products must travel within the warehouse from storage to dispatch and maintain the free flow of materials without congestion. This plays a pivotal role in the speed and effectiveness of storage, picking, and general material handling processes within the facility.
Locating inventory within a warehouse is critical in ensuring a smooth and productive stock management system and workflow. By minimising the travel time of products and reducing congestion, the efficiency and speed of storage, picking, and material handling operations can be significantly improved, leading to a more streamlined and effective dispatch of orders.
Selecting Manufacturing and Distribution Storage Systems
Customers’ demands significantly affect an organisation's choice of strategic manufacturing or distribution system. The speed and efficiency of these systems are directly influenced by the level of service required by customers. An organisation must respond operationally to meet customer needs and the expected service level to satisfy customer expectations.
An organisation's ability to meet customer needs and expectations hinges on adequately selecting and utilising the correct storage system and equipment. By considering the efficiency of material handling flows and the suitability of storage systems, an organisation can enhance its overall performance and ensure the highest levels of customer satisfaction without incurring unnecessary additional costs.
Making well-informed choices about storage systems is crucial to meeting customer requirements, sustaining a competitive advantage in the market, and maximising an organisation’s sales, turnover, and profitability.
Material Handling System Mapping
The layout of manufacturing or distribution systems is greatly influenced by the dimensions of the building, encompassing its width, height, and length. At times, the design of manufacturing and distribution systems may be limited by a building's dimensions rather than tailored for maximum materials handling efficiency to shorten travel distances and manufacturing or order picking and assembly efficiency and effectiveness.
Hence, it is crucial to meticulously contemplate the selection of a building to ensure that it harmonises with the organisation's goals and objectives for its manufacturing or distribution systems. The characteristics and pagination of products received from suppliers will mean that certain types of storage equipment will be more suitable than others. The primary inputs into deciding the kinds of storage and distribution equipment that are suitable will be the characteristics of products in terms of their:
- Height.
- Width.
- Depth.
- Weight.
- Retail unit quantity.
- Supply unit quantity.
The storage system should support product examination, positioning in the primary pallet storage racking area, restocking in the pick-face racking, and then picking and shipping for customer delivery.
Product Pagination
The effectiveness of the sales order picking and dispatch process is significantly impacted by the correlation between the dimensions and pagination of the product's external transit packaging upon arrival from the supplier. This correlation must be considered when procuring the right size of storage equipment to guarantee maximum efficiency in sales order picking and dispatch.
In this situation, it is crucial to ensure that the storage facilities in a warehouse's main pallet racking area can accommodate pallets received from suppliers. In contrast, the racking in a warehouse's picking area should be able to store a pallet of boxes that will be assembled into customer orders without the need for pallets to be split down during the replenishment of pick-face locations.
Suppliers must deliver pallets containing the products boxed as an organisation's customers will receive them to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse order picking and dispatch operations. The palletised product received from the supplier should match the quantity required to replenish the pick-face location.
It is also important to note that the units sold and dispatched to the customer should be individual, indicating that the pallet received from the supplier would be sufficient to fulfil a high volume of customer orders. Compatibility among the storage equipment used across warehouse zones is imperative for a warehouse's seamless and efficient operation.
This compatibility is vital in facilitating product delivery, storage, picking, and dispatching. Even a slight incompatibility in one warehouse zone can disrupt the overall product flow through a warehouse. The interruptions may lead to increased costs and present possible dangers to the well-being and security of staff.
For instance, if boxes in a warehouse picking area cannot be stored in the designated racking and are left in the aisles, it can create a potential trip hazard for individuals accessing the area for picking purposes. Therefore, it is crucial to prioritise compatibility among the storage equipment types to maintain a seamless flow of products throughout a warehouse.
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