The most effective way to improve the efficiency of warehouse operation - warehouse planning and adjustment

The location plan is defined as "the rationalization of the goods into the warehouse facilities to achieve material handling optimization and improve the utilization of space targets."
For example, the high turnover rate of goods allocated to the goods near the cargo area, you can increase the storage rate of storage. However, if the operator needs to make multiple replenishment or picking of the goods, it is more advantageous to distribute the goods in the vicinity of the delivery platform or picking area.
The planning and adjustment of goods and goods is an effective means to keep the logistics in the ideal running state. However, because many warehouse managers do not fully understand the importance of this work, ignoring the regular cargo planning and adjustment, until someone complained about the warehouse is not enough, found the channel filled with goods, only to realize the seriousness of the problem.
Through the location planning and adjustment, you can achieve the following results:
In accordance with the reasonable picking order to place the goods, you can reduce the number of picking staff corresponding to the location specifications, the allocation of the corresponding number of unitary goods, can reduce the number of replenishment staff balance the workload of the operator can reduce the operating cycle and improve the work process.
Will be easy to confuse the goods assigned to a different picking area, can improve the accuracy of picking ergonomics to plan the best placement of goods, to avoid injury in the picking path, the weight of goods planning at the front, Afraid of bumps in the back of the goods, you can reduce the damage to the goods.
According to the height of the goods assigned to the goods in the picking of the goods to achieve hierarchical tight code, you can improve the efficiency of the tray to improve the efficiency of the truck compartment by adjusting the warehouse layout, improve space utilization, you can postpone or avoid the construction of investment goods classification Code can reduce the logistics center of the second side of the user sorting workload, improve the overall efficiency of the supply chain.
In the initial use of the warehouse, it should start planning and adjustment of cargo. The reason is that, regardless of the initial location planning how perfect, changing business environment will eventually lead to the current plan is no longer applicable.
In the daily operation of the warehouse, the business matters to change the existing situation of goods placed in the situation, but also take into account the fire regulations, day after day, reasonable allocation of goods and adjustment is gradually forgotten, which is a large number of logistics center Always to the warehouse is not enough reason. And then re-planning the re-planning, the adjustment work is often arduous. Cargo adjustment is the daily work, should be avoided when the accumulation of piles to solve the problem, the regular adjustment of the goods can be avoided into the above dilemma.
Whether it is to start a new warehouse, or to find ways to improve the existing warehouse layout, a reasonable method of placing goods is both to save investment, but also an ideal way to improve the efficiency of the warehouse. Through the database software or spreadsheet application, we can in a few days to complete a warehouse location planning adjustment work. With the WMS integrated cargo planning and design, daily cargo location adjustment software has also been developed, compared to its potential benefits, the purchase of such software investment is only a fraction.
Location planning and adjustment, wher to start?
In order to ensure the effect, in the adjustment of the goods before, there are several preparatory work need to step by step implementation. Including: selec the location planning strategy, a clear cargo planning objectives, data collection and inventory planning needs analysis. Without a thorough analysis of the preparation phase, it is impossible to achieve the desired adjustment effect.
Regardless of any goods and location planning project, a clear goal is the first job. Clear goals can avoid follow-up work of the detours and repeated, the target is not clear, it is possible to work in half to find the wrong direction.
The goal is divided into two aspects - effectiveness goals and restrictive factors. Effectiveness objectives are usually defined by post-adjusted operational efficiency improvement indicators. Efficiency improvement indicators usually include shortening walking distance, reducing replenishment workload, balancing operator workload, and improving picking efficiency.
Restrictive factors refer to matters that must be considered in the planning and adjustment of the location, usually at the expense of the loss of warehouse operating efficiency. These factors include the weight of goods, the size of the goods, picking accuracy requirements and the logistics center of the operating efficiency of the client and so on.
Effectiveness objectives are usually defined by post-adjusted operational efficiency improvement indicators.
once the above objectives are identified, they should be prioritized. For example, the most basic principle of cargo planning and adjustment is to determine the location of the goods and the shipping area / delivery area in accordance with the material mobility of the goods. However, this is usually not the highest priority. Because, although the above method can reduce the picking distance, but there are many other factors should also be considered together.
If you do not consider such factors as cargo capacity, weight of goods, classification requirements and the size of the goods and other factors, although by reducing the walking distance can win considerable operating efficiency, but also may bring transport path blocking, damaged goods, heavy supplies and operations Poor safety and other adverse consequences.
Therefore, when considering a target factor should take into account the impact on other warehouse operations. For example, for the distribution of office equipment logistics center, we must fully consider the order of the goods code. Comparison of other target factors to prevent damage to the goods should be the highest target of such logistics center.
In the picking operations, to heavy goods, not afraid of bumps of goods, such as cushion, etc. (although the turnover rate of the commodity may not be high), the code on the bottom of the pallet cargo; and then a layer can consider paper or other fares ; Easy to break the goods, such as stationery, calculator, etc., should be in the picking code on the top of the pallet cargo (although the high liquidity of these goods).
Accordingly, the order of the picking area should be in accordance with the above requirements to determine the order of the goods, through a reasonable code to ensure the quality of goods. For an angle, in the easy-to-break category of goods, the cargo planning should also take into account the respective turnover rate to selec the appropriate location.
once the objectives are clearly planned, the selecion and collection of planning analysis data is the second task. The planning goal determines the content that should be collected. The data should include the location characteristics information, the goods demand information and the product documentation.
The following are some basic data that may be used for data analysis: cargo location information, type of goods (such as storage or picking), storage and storage equipment types (such as trays, corridor shelves, plane stacking, etc.) , Picking equipment type (such as tray flow of goods, carton flow cargo, cargo depth, cargo carrying capacity.
from WMS or ERP, you can directly download the order or shipping documents to obtain the goods order information. In general, in order to find out the seasonal changes in the demand for goods, SKU long-term growth / elimination changes and other logistics characteristics of the information, the time span of such documents should be in a few months, so that more than a year. The above information is also an important basis for the selection of the whole disk, Zhengxiang or split zero picking strategy.
The following are the product characteristics that may be used in the data analysis: the identity of the goods, the type of goods, the proportion of goods shipped, SKU, the height of the goods, the width of the goods, the depth of the goods, the weight of the goods, the demand for goods, the unit of measurement / Box packaging quantity, quantity / pallet, goods development plan, average reserves.
After the data collection work is completed, the third job is logistics demand analysis. The purpose of the demand analysis is to determine the picking and replenishment properties for each item. The first step in demand analysis is to analyze the quantity and picking method for each item. The analysis method is to decompose the line item of each order into the whole picking, the full box picking, and the demolition of the picking category.
In turn, all SKUs are classified by ABC, the turnover rate of goods in category A is the highest, and the turnover rate of category C is the lowest. Typically, Class A goods only account for 10 to 20 percent of the total SKU distribution, and it is precisely 70 to 90 percent of the total number of items in the range.
The next job is to define the appropriate picking equipment for different goods. First, use the data analysis data mentioned above to calculate the unitized replenishment quantity for each item and determine the turnover rate of the goods. The turnover rate is the basis for selecting picking equipment. If a product needs two units a day replenishment, the cargo should be only one day than the need for a replenishment unit cargo goods.
Then, you need to count the number of times each product is subject to determine the "touch" of the goods. The number of days / weeks / months of the goods is the basis for determining the choice of the specific picking position - goods with a high "moving frequency" should correspond to the most suitable picking for high frequency picking.
After the completion of the planning needs analysis, the specific goods layout work can begin. For the integrated logistics system with multiple functional areas and a variety of picking equipment, the cargo placement work can be implemented in two steps: first, the corresponding goods will be zoned to define, and then each item will be planned to the specific location. The specific arrangement of goods follows the principle of "determining the planning objectives" above.