Successful distributors often find themselves a victim of their own success. Your “Once Small” business has now grown into a very large distribution center. Your work-force that was once a few tried and true set of associates that you knew personally and could rely on for their ability to use their initiative and “tribal knowledge” of your business has grown multiple times. Perhaps you don’t know them by name anymore as unfortunately they seem to come and go. Your once spacious warehouse continues to grow laterally and it is getting tough to find space to pick, package and stage product. So the subject comes up: “Are we getting too big for this facility?” and “Maybe it’s time to move to a bigger place”. Don’t get me wrong, System Sales Engineers like me love a new distribution center and maybe it is time to move to a bigger place. But before you do, let’s point out a few areas that deserve some consideration.
Cubic Space vs. Lateral Space
You are spread out to the max but do you have clear areas above your current distribution operation to use vertically instead of laterally. There are many ways to use this space that often goes ignored. Shelf supported platforms, mezzanines, pick modules and sorters can often be elevated to use the vertical space available. Additionally, in distribution operations with small parts or many slower moving SKUs, vertical lift modules are a good means of condensing storage of items while suing the full clear height of your facility.
Manifesting Consolidation
You ship with the typical providers UPS, FEDEX and USPS and you keep adding manifesting stations to keep up with the throughput requirements. However, many distribution centers are automating this function in a condensed space with a picking operation that features:
· Picked case LPN – License Plate Number bar codes that contain order data.
· Cases that are bar coded by the case manufacturer with dimensional data contained.
· Central shipping label print and apply lines
o Case LPN is scanned
o Case dimensional data code is scanned
o Case is weighed in line on the fly
o Shipping label (FEDEX, UPS or USPS) is applied automatically
o Case is sorted automatically to their respective line by shipping type
Imagine one central shipping area instead of multiple manifesting lines with all the redundant equipment and space that comes with it.
Picking Consolidation
You have an army of pickers that pick up their paper pick lists, pick orders one at a time with carts, taking them up to a central packing area. I know it was never meant to be this way but it just came with the great success of your business. With all this travelling and movement come the inevitable reduction of throughput and the expansion of picking areas required to hold all this traffic, never-mind the social activity that goes together with pushing picking carts around the distribution center.
Many distribution centers centralize picking, using batch picking with a suitable technology which may include RF scanners, pick to light, or voice picking. The picking may be done out of carousels (horizontal and vertical) depending on the velocity of the individual SKU or out of pick modules which are slotted by velocity of pallet picks (full pallet, carton flow or shelving). The right type is a function of the speed of the pick, dimensional qualities of the SKU and the density of product pick faces.
There are also “Goods to You” applications that make great use of the vertical space often available in many warehouses. These “Goods to You” systems bring the product to the picker and are versatile in form and function.
Before you consider moving, spend some time looking up and consolidating where you can, using proven technologies. It’s much cheaper than taking on a new lease.
