Strong Fulfillment Operations Through Rock Solid Basics
While working at a few warehouses recently, a few observations stand out. Probably the most important is to make sure the basics are in place before moving on to more complicated or advanced issues and solutions. Running a warehouse is like building a house. The foundation has to be in place before you consider building a media room with a home theater system with surround sound and a 54 inch plasma TV.
It is wise to call a timeout and regroup with an assessment of where you stand today in your warehouse before considering changes to the way you do business. Taking a look to make sure some of the basics are in place can make the foundation stronger. I would suggest that there are a few basics to evaluate. They are:
- Slotting – Make sure that you spend time placing items in the most beneficial place in the pick line. Consideration of sales velocity and product characteristics when locating items makes a big difference in the efficiency of the warehouse. Although this function is viewed as background work, it is essential to developing an efficient operation.
- Replenishment – After products are properly slotted, the next fundamental is to make sure the replenishment process insures that there will be sufficient quantities in the pick slot to meet picking demand. A combination of the min – max process and a demand review of each pick wave should be employed.
- Inventory Control – Knowing the location of your entire inventory is critical to running a warehouse. You should have a system that records and has available information showing every location in the warehouse and the SKU stored there and the quantity of each. If you can easily locate all of your inventory, it makes it possible to perform functions such as replenishment, put away, and taking physical inventory in an effective manner. Without knowing what you own and where it is located, too much time is spent searching for locations or product that are unnecessary.
If you take care of the fundamentals like those listed above, it will make your life running the warehouse a lot easier and productive.
Contact us if you would like to talk about having us conduct a warehouse assessment or about any of the rest of our warehouse consulting services.
Bob Betke is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in warehouse and distribution, warehouse management systems, order management systems, call center, inventory management, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com
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