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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