Will slotting work for you?
-- Modern Materials Handling, 7/2/2001
At the Warehousing Education and Research Council's annual conference (see our June 2001 Special Report ), slotting was one topic under discussion. Here's how to tell if slotting is for you.
Properly slotting (or profiling) all the items to be stored/staged in a warehouse can be a real productivity booster. By strategically grouping and assigning locations to items, warehouse management can improve and optimize putaway, picking, replenishing, and shipping.
“But is slotting right for you?” asks Mike Wells, vice president, TomZosel Associates. In his seminar talk at the WERC meeting, Wells suggested warehouse managers consider slotting when their operations:
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Focus on continuous optimization.
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Experience excessive replenishment activity.
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Undergo layout changes or introduce new picking methods.
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Add new items or discontinue others frequently.
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Undergo swings in the item mix on a seasonal, monthly, weekly, or daily basis.
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Need to support planned ad campaigns or catalog releases.
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Have flow-through as well as temporary pick slots.
Determining accurate cube information is vital to the success of any slotting effort, he adds, with data calculated on both macro and micro levels. Monthly shipping volumes in terms of cube movement need to be measured, Wells says, along with monthly, cube on-hand data, for example.
Manually processing cube data and related factors can be very time consuming, Wells notes. But after slotting methodology is set up, the process can be relatively straightforward. Software-based slotting, in contrast, requires investing in computer hardware and software and paying for training expenses. For complex layouts with many unique pick zones, successful slotting may require an expensive PC with a fast processor.
But the software creates the capability to integrate slotting data with a WMS (warehouse management system). On a PC one can run fast, “what-if” scenarios and perform reslotting. Long term, the software may prove to be less costly than manual methods, Wells says.
NEWS BRIEFS
09/30/1998Take a walk through some warehouse works.
12/31/1997WERC celebrates 25 years of success
03/31/2002WMS works says WERC
01/31/2004
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