Last week we looked at how cross-docking can improve your productivity and reduce delivery lead times. But you may be asking, what is cross-docking? In its purest form, it is the process of moving inventory direct from a truck in receiving to an awaiting truck at shipping: You may already practice cross-docking when you take […]
Category: Space Utilization
The Benefit WMS Building Blocks – Inventory Accuracy
A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a foundation for improved operational efficiency, providing a series of building blocks that will act as a basis for efficient warehousing operations. Today we will look at one of the primary building blocks a WMS provides; Improved inventory record accuracy and the reduction in data processing errors that result […]
Directed Put-away – No Location Found
Directed put-away removes the routine and tedious decision making tasks from operators allowing them to be more productive. A good warehouse management system (WMS) should allow management to define various put-away rules the computer will use when determining the best put-away location. […]
Boom Room. Sometimes being lean simply means being simple.
Your workforce can manage keeping the flammable product in this protected space by memory, but most warehouses should have technology in place to ensure all product is put-away following rules-based decision support. This ‘direct putaway’ capability will help you with additional warehouse best practice including: […]
Lean and Safety – Stop, Look & Point
Safety and Lean can and should go hand in hand. I recently did a lean tour of a large distribution center. Along with seeing many lean process ideas I learned they had a strong focus on employee safety. […]
Storing Small Items – Part 2
Last month we introduced a few ways to store small items including custom made dividers, plastic dividers on small beam racking, traditional small bin shelving and rotabins. This month we provide a few more small items storage ideas and end with a general comparison. […]
Storing Small Items – Part 1
On a recent facility tour I observed a unique approach to storing individual cigars. This neat diamond rack configuration was designed to easily store various types and sizes of cigars in a small area. During a discussion with the rack designer we mentioned the pro’s and con’s of the design: Pro’s: Good density, ease of […]
The Golden Zone
Utilizing The Golden Zone will help make sure fast-moving SKUs are accessible and require minimal effort for the operator to pick. […]
What is Carrying Cost?
Carrying Cost, as a warehouse manager it is out of your control but use it to your advantage […]
Store Product Picked Together, Together
In an earlier blog we discussed ABC profiles and cube movement distribution. Through this analysis you should be able to determine if products are frequently ordered together. If you do see a significant correlation between products, consider storing the products together to help reduce overall travel time per pick tour. If the pick correlation frequency […]