In every economy supply chain and logistics plays an important role and warehouses are the core of supply chain and logistics. Technology is transforming warehouses and making this core area more vibrant, productive, and strong like never before.
The implementation of various technologies such as the Internet of things (IoT), Artificial intelligence (AI), Robotics, Big data, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Cloud computing, Mixed reality, and many more, all these technologies enable increasing the efficiency of several techniques involved in warehousing.
Warehousing operations involve several techniques which are being used by professionals to optimize their workflow.
Best TechniquesTransforming Warehouses
The following are the warehousing techniques that get better by implementing technologies.
Recommended storage quantity
Recommended storage quantity is also called the RSQ. It means that sometimes inventory is classified as waste, but it is not. Inventory is a competitive edge in most scenarios but the waste is an excess inventory. To declare an inventory as an excess you should know the ideal inventory. This is what is done in calculating the recommended storage quantity.
So in a nutshell what recommended storage quantity does is consider all the different supply chain parameters and constraints and arrive at the ideal inventory level at each of the stocking points within the supply chain. We would also drive inventory programs towards achieving the recommended storage quantity. So the inventory turnover metric is used to evaluate it.
ABC analysis
It uses a Pareto analysis technique to do an ABC analysis for fast, slow, and non-mover; it is also called FSN analysis. You can do an ABC analysis to arrive at your top performers by volume. You can also arrive at your top performers by sales value as well by the margins. So, for all these things, the method that you use remains constant. Through this ABC analysis, you can prioritize your SKUs such that you can focus your effort on them.
For example, if you have one thousand SKUs, it is humanly impossible to focus on all these SKUs and manage them. So by prioritizing your SKUs, you focus your effort on them. This technique is going to be crucial and it indirectly helps you with the overall warehouse optimization.
Cubic Space Utilization
Its names come from the length, width, and height of the warehouse, and by cubic space utilization, you are ensuring that you are utilizing the complete space within the warehouse to the brim. You should consider your entire warehouse and arrive at the cubic space utilization, only then you will be able to focus on your aisle space, your processing areas, and on your office areas, etc. so, every square foot within the warehouse will come into the radar such that you keep improving on them. The metric here is the cubic space utilization percentage.
Concepting
Concepting is also called slotting. It is a sub technique that will be used when you are trying to increase your cubic space utilization, so concepting ensures that you don’t have any space leakages with the new storage.
Dynamic Slotting
Once the decision has been made for the overall facility layout design and storage structure design now the question comes: are you going to do static slotting? Or you’re going to do dynamic slotting?
Static slotting means you create a space for a product if the product is not there also the space will be empty. In dynamic slotting when the product comes in, the decision is made where the product should go. So the location gets rotated for different products.
Dynamic slotting is a very powerful technique but you need to set those key storage and allocation parameters very clearly such that the system doesn’t get confused. If you adopt dynamic slotting but if you’re not setting these parameters properly then it will directly have a negative impact on your putaway efficiency.
Material Flow
There are many material flows in warehouse operations but the crux of every material flow is you should ensure that there are no crisscrosses within the warehouse movements. That is the critical criteria when you’re designing your material flow.
A technique that can be extensively used for material flow is the spaghetti method it is a very powerful method used to arrive at all the unwanted movements within the warehouse. And then you will be able to streamline your overall material flow. The metric which is used to evaluate your material flow is called the throughput time.
Conclusion
To sum up, warehouses involve techniques to function smoothly and all the various techniques involved in warehousing get better with the implementation of technologies in it.
Hence it will be correct to state that these are best practices to be done by warehouse business owners in order to increase their productivity and profitability.
Are you looking to implement technology into your warehousing business? If yes so please feel free to contact us at support@aeologic.com
