Why do we number the aisles always from 01-99 from one end of the DC to the other

I hope you found the very first in this Blog series interesting. Each of these BLOG content is fresh, not copy/pasted from somewhere. They are based on both past experience and current industry developments.

Before getting into this week’s Blog, I want to share with you some discussion on short-term implementable ideas and keeping a long term vision. They are both important. In many industries, if we don’t survive the short-term, there won’t be a long term.  You must have heard of ‘the low hanging fruit’ and the ‘hard nut to crack”.

You will find most of the ideas in the Blogs to be the ‘low hanging fruit’ category.

Fact 1. We do not build a brand new warehouse every month. (A key assumption). In the course of the history of a Company, or a facility, we may consider building a new warehouse, may be after 30 years. And we tend to expand or remodel every 5 or 10 years.

Fact 2. No one is ready to tear down the current layout and rebuild it every week or every month.

Hence, most of these Blogs will be easy to implement, if you agree and can justify the recommendation.

Today’s Blog subject has both a short term idea and a long term suggestion.

Why do we number the aisles always from 01-99 from one end of the DC to the other?

The real answer is: we are used to it. OR it was like that before I got here. 

Given that in many DC’s, almost 80% of the activity is generated by 20% of the items, we should really slot these 20% of the items in the closest section in the DC. 

The picture on the left suggests that we should slot the ‘A’ items close to the dock, in those middle aisles.

Followed by the ‘B’ items next. 

Rest of the layout consists of 80% of the total sku’s which are slow ‘C’ items.

Fishbone Design Warehouse Aisles

Russell Meller, Director of the Center for Engineering Logistics and Distribution at the University of Arkansas and Kevin Gue, engineering professor at Auburn University studied the warehouse layout configurations and came up with the above design called “Fishbone design”.

 [the copyrights for the 2 above pictures, belong to the appropriate owners.]

More at http://www.cisco-eagle.com/catalog/c-3050-fishbone-rack-aisle-layout.aspx

 

An electrical motor manufacturer and distributor – Genrac - implemented the Fishbone layout in their new DC in Whitewater Wisconsin. Genrac has reported positive results – about 15% in comparable pick times.

No need to tear down the racks

But what if you are not willing to tear down the racks and achieve almost half the savings as the fish bone layout, you can consider re-numbering the aisles.

Key note: In this proposed ABC based layout,

• 1.       there is no FAMILY considerations for the product

• 2.       products are slotted mostly based on velocity

• 3.       The number of Lines per order is in the range of – 3 to 15

• 4.       We are looking at warehouses in the 120,000 to 450,000 sq.feet range (approx.).  Travel time starts becoming a major issue in these DC’s.

When you number the DC from Aisle 01 starting in one end and number them 02,03,04,05 etc, you are forcing every pick order to walk past all aisles. Of course, the cross tunnels help somewhat.

But you can trim down the travel time, if you number from the middle and go with all odd numbered aisles in one direction and the even on the other side.  And you must change the ‘work assignments’ to be in these 2 sections separately. So no one will travel from an odd aisle to an even aisle.

And you must slot the products accordingly. With the A items in the middle, surrounded immediately by the B items. With C items on both ends and on the north side of the tunnel. This will not eliminate picking C items, but it will increase the chances of picking an order with just A and B item faster. We always recommend a well designed Batch picking for the C items or simply a on-the-fly manual batch picking of the C items – say 2 orders per one C work assignment.

 How do you migrate to this recommendation.  We recommend in 2 major steps.

Step 1:   Renumber the Aisles. Odd aisles on one side. Even aisles on the other side. This will require re-labeling the aisle numbers. If each slot location has the Bay-Level-Face only, then the individual Slot identification will remain the same. Work with your IT group to make changes on your layout database.

Step 2:   Establish the slotting groups to look like the picture on the right (above). And let the weekly slotting scheme take over. It will achieve the required slotting in slow but simple manner.

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website:  Introduction to Karma Logistics

Why and where to put tunnels (cross aisles) in your rack layout

Purpose of cross aisles and tunnels

In our facilities, we create a 'cross aisle' or a 'tunnel'. In a 5 level pallet rack storage design, usually the lower 2 levels are removed, to allow a forklift with load, to pass through.

If an order picker is finished picking in one aisle, the tunnel offers a way to move to the next aisle, without having to walk all around the end of the aisle.

How many facilities have a cross aisle or a tunnel in the exact mid-point of the Aisle? Is there any particular reason to justify this? No.

We recommend the tunnel to be placed at 1/3 vs 2/3 split. Use a ABC slotting as shown in the graphic below.

To ensure safety, we can stagger the cross aisles by 1 bay, from one aisle to the next. By staggering the tunnel bay, it forces the order picker or a forklift to slow down. 

Given the 80:20 rule, can we try to slot as many of the FAST movers in the lower 1/3 of the aisles. This will require the cross aisle to be located at about 1/3 distance from the beginning. In the graphic above, the RED color is for Fast moving items, Blue for medium and Yellow for slow. 

Future BLOGS will cover these 14 topics, approximately 1 Good Karma a week.

1. Why do we number the aisles always from 01-99 from one end of the DC to the other.
2. Try slotting all NEW items in a separate section for a month.
3. You must slot-number to the lowest pick face. Use Zone-Aisle-Bay-Level-face
4. Profile your orders. The value - Lines Per Order should set the picking method.
5. Try to batch pick the "C" [slow] items. Even a batch of 2 orders in the C section will go long ways. Otherwise, all your gains in the AB section will be lost in the C section.
6. Who is/are your Customer(s)?. Profile their business types.
7. Is your Main DC full, that you direct all new truckloads to another overflow DC.
8. In a bulk storage DC, do you have more than 6 DEEP rows. Learn about Honeycombing.
9. How to avoid the first hour rush during the picking shift.
10. Why we recommend a weekly re-slotting? To avoid major problems later.
11. Why we always focus on picking productivity. Why not on inbound put-away productivity also
12. In you present storage layout, is any of the outer walls left exposed with no racking or any shelving
13. In a single deep pallet rack, say you are using a 48" by 42" wooden pallet, which dimension should be the depth and why? Similar considerations for the standard metric pallet.
14. Do you use a bulk storage end cap by the dock for promotion items.

These are just a starting list of productivity improving ideas. We have more.

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Imagine, if you had a software technique to help you do these !!

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website:  Introduction to Karma Logistics