Ch. 7: Warehouse Operations

Warehousing

• Set of activities that are involved in receiving and story of goods and preparing them for reshipment

• Three main:

  • Inbound

  • Process

  • Outbound

Types of Warehousing

• Public

• Private

• Contract

• Multi-client

Warehouse Opportunities

• Improving order picking

• Utilizing cross-docking

• Increasing productivity

• Utilizing space

• Increasing value-adding services

1. Receiving

• Orderly receiving all material coming in the warehouse

• Assuring quantity and quality of material are ordered

• Disbursing material to storage or other functions

Inspection and Quality Control

• When suppliers are inconsistent

• Visual check

• Lab testing

Repackaging

• Receiving in bulk, packaging into kits, assortments

• Relabelling

Put-Away

Placing merchandise in storage

Storage

Physical containment of merch. While waiting in demanding

Order picking

• Process of removing items

• Represents basic service that the warehouse provides a customer

Postponement

Waiting for re-picking and re-packaging

Sortation

Batch picks individual order and accumulation of distribution

9. Packing and Shipping

• Checking for completeness

• Appropriate container

• Shipping docs

• Loading trucks

10. Cross-Docking

Inbound receipts from the receiving dock directly to the shipping dock

11. Replenishing

Primary picking location of storage

Activities Required to Receive Goods

• Delivery appointment and provides cargo

• Verifies advance shipping notice

• Vehicle safely secured

• Loading

• Seal inspection

Receiving and Shipping Space Planning

• Space allocation

  • Personnel offices

  • Receiving hold area

  • Trash disposal

  • Pallet/packaging material

  • Truckers lounge

  • Staging areas

  • Material handling

Dock Operations Planning

• Interface between dock at a given height and variable higher carriers

• Bumper pads between dock and moveable carrier

• Interface between temperature dock and non-temperature controlled carrier

Dock Levelers

• Possible solutions

  • Walking up or down

  • Portable ramp

  • Permanent adjustable ramp

  • Raising carrier

  • Raising dock

Bumper pads

• Trailer can hit a building with up to 150k pounds of force

• Molded or laminated rubber cushions

• Can save 15k pounds per one inch of padding

Storage Operations

• Objective: Max. Resource utilization while satisfying customer requirements

• Resources:

  • Space

  • Equipment

  • Personnel

Popularity

• Pareto’s Law: 85% of the turnover will be a result of 15% of materials stored

• Most popular 15% of materials should be stored so that travel distance is minimized

Order Picking Operations

• Highest priority activity in warehouse

• Because it is:

  • Costliest (55%)

  • Difficult to manage

    • Intro of JIT, cycle-time reduction, quick responses

  • Emphasis on quality improvement and CS

  • Hire more or invest in automation

Order Picking

• Process of pulling items from inventory to fill a cx order

• Most labour

• Three Kinds:

  • Zone

  • Batch

  • Wave

Replenishment

• Movement of inventory from upstream to downstream

• Keep inventory flowing through the supply chain by maintaining efficient order

Stock Rotation

• Arrange the oldest units in inventory so they are sold before newer units

• FIFO: First in first out

• LIFO: Last in first out

Packing

• Minimize damage that could occur after an item has the the prod. Line

• Variety of damage could occur

Shipping

• Confirmation

• Invoicing

• Sealing

• Staging

• Loading

Warehouse Optimization

• Increasing productivity

  • Optimization floor space

  • Increasing output efficiency

  • Automated systems and software

• When you can receive the order and when you can send it out