What is Carrying Cost?
As a warehouse manager you might see many storage locations full of the same product. From your experience you know it might take months to sell that much inventory. But you don’t have much input. Your job is to get product checked in, keep it safe while in your stead and get it picked and […]
Pass the White Glove Test
You can randomly look around for inventory that appears to have been around for a while. If the inventory has excess dust on the boxes chances are it has been there too long. Alternatively, if you plan to come back to the warehouse you can mark one of the cases then when you return (maybe […]
Implement a Vendor Compliance Program
When you consider the average warehouse receives, counts, and inspects thousands of items of varying shapes and sizes from hundreds of vendors whose picking, packing, and shipping practices are all different, it is not surprising receiving can be one of the most complicated functions in the warehouse. You’ve probably heard reference to the GIGO concept. […]
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 […]
Cluster Pick When Possible
A straight-forward way to improve pick labor productivity is to eliminate the travel back and forth to the office and the shipping/packaging areas between order picks. One way to accomplish this is to have one operator pick multiple orders at the same time, or Cluster Pick, if possible. Cluster Picking is a pick method where […]
Warehouse within a Warehouse
Using a Forward Pick strategy helps keep a smaller volume of inventory in easily accessible bins (Forward Pick) with the excess stock in remote bins (Reserve Storage) (Figure 1). The Forward Pick zone in a warehouse functions as a “warehouse within a warehouse”: many of the most popular SKUs are stored there in small amounts, […]
Know Your Order Profile
A basic principle to optimizing warehouse space is evaluating and selecting the most space efficient storage equipment. Using more dense storage equipment is a key factor to reduce space requirements. An analysis of your products inventory levels and cubic order activity should be performed to accurately define the storage requirements in reserve and the forward […]
Know Your ABCs
Paying attention to the fastest selling items to make sure they are located in the most advantageous picking position will generate significant labor cost savings. If available space is a concern, slotting will also help improve storage utilization by focusing on the slowest movers to see if their assigned bin space can be reduced. Slotting […]
Space Utilization Part Two
In Part two of our Space Utilization series, “The Supply Chain Doctor” Chris Barnes discusses more ways you can utilize space in your Warehouse. Space Utilization Part Two The impact of using vertical storage space depends on your current storage clear height and product stack-ability restrictions. For example, in the beverage industry, a stack height […]
Space Utilization Part One
Do you have too much warehouse space? Chances are you are either out of space or getting close to it. It happens all the time, inventory (and other stuff) tends to expand to fill the amount of available space. When you do run out of warehouse space there are many options to consider including expanding […]