GLA Unit 4: Warehouse Management

Climate Controlled Warehouses (mod 1)

Climate controlled warehouses are refrigerated and can offer temperatures as low as -30 degrees.

Best Practices

Cross-docking: refers to the ability to move material directly from receiving to an open door (no storage time needed) Interleaving: involves multi-tasking - put one order away and before returning to the dock area....pick another order to minimize traveling time around the warehouse

Value-add area (mod 1)

For warehouses that are performing value-added activities such as kitting, sequencing, repackaging, labeling, or minor sub-assembly, a designated area is setup to ensure that the appropriate amount of space necessary to perform the activities is available and to accommodate the equipment needed to perform these activities.

Special case warehouses (mod 1)

Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) and bonded warehouses are facilities with special designations allowing them to provide unique services. The primary purpose of the FTZ and the bonded warehouse is to delay the payment of tariffs during the manufacturing or supply chain process. Manufacturers can buy and store foreign materials and not have to pay the tariffs until they are actually used and ready for sale.

Professional Organizations that can offer assistance

International Warehousing Logistics Association (IWLA) Warehousing & Education Research Council (WERC) Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) National Association of Foreign Trade Zones (NAFTZ) American Society for Quality (ASQ)

Prepackaging (mod 1)

Involves repackaging materials received in bulk into merchandisable quantities, kits, or assortments, thereby adding value.

Storage area (mod 1)

Storage areas are where material is stored until needed. These areas are where warehouse material handling equipment such as racking, shelving and other storage medium are setup

Staging area (mod 1)

The primary purpose of staging areas is the temporary containment of material for inspection, unpacking or packing, and repackaging of material for subsequent storage or shipment

Sorting and/or accumulation (mod 1)

This activity includes the separation of batch picks into individual orders and accumulation of distributed picks into orders when more than one item is involved

Material transport equipment (mod 2)

Various types of equipment facilitate the warehousing function part of the supply chain. There are 3 general classifications of warehouse material handling equipment: the equipment used to load/unload things in the warehouse, storage equipment, and those that ensure safety and efficient operations Examples include: hand trucks: most basic piece, designed to move packages weighing 1-800 lbs pallet jacks: manual or electronically motor driven counterbalance forklift: used to move heavy palletized or unitzed material Narrow-aisle counterbalance forklift: have forks on the side to allow drivers to move up and down narrow aisles Order pickers: material operators travels up with the forks of the equipment; operate in a warehouse environment where the primary pick type is less-than-a-pallet from racked aisles

shipping manifest

a generic document used by the carrier to list the contents, dimensions, and weight of the container

Lean

a process improvement tool that focuses on adding-value and eliminating waste. One of the most common tools is 5S: sort, set-in order, shine, standardize, and sustain

Just-in-Time (JIT)

a quality improvement concept that seeks to improve operations by producing or delivering, at acceptable levels, only what is needed, in the quantity needed, when it is needed, and where it is needed

Automated Guided Vehicle System (AGVS)

a warehouse storage and retrieval solution that saves labor costs and provides a reliable retrieval system in a repetitive environment. An AGVS solution consists of computer-controlled material handling load carriers that can move products within the facility using wire or laser guided technology.

Drive-through rack

accessible from both sides of the rack

value-added activities

activities used to add value to the material before shipment to the final customer: labeling, stamping, bar coding

Double-deep pallet racking

allows up to twice the storage space because it is two pallet positions deep; reduces the number of aisles needed in the warehouse allowing for storage of additional pallets in the same warehouse

Automatic Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS)

automated storage and retrieval solution ideal for handling small items with large number of SKUs picked in small batches

Challenges in warehouse workforce development (mod 4)

complexity, technology, automation, unions, and staffing

Logistics Execution Systems (LES)

computer based systems used to connect supply chain management processes involved in procurement, order processing, storage, inventory management, and sales

Data requirements for making storage and equipment decisions (mod 2)

configuration: variety of shapes and sizes, may be in unit bundles size: must be stored safely and efficiently by size and location volume: refers to cube movement and plays a role in determining the storage mode and the allocation of space in the storage mode density: refers to pick density and represents the number of requests for an item per cubic feet

Pallet racking (mod 2)

configured to allow pallet storage in multiple levels while protecting the materials stores, can take advantage of high ceilings by pallet racking

Stacking frames (mod 2)

constructed from plastic or steel, are assembled quickly and work well for storing lightweight products

Over Short & Damage (OS&D)

defines the exceptions that can happen to material in the warehouse over: quantity received is greater than listed on docs short: quantity received is less than listed on docs damaged: something happened to the material during shipping

Mezzanine

extends the storage area above areas that would otherwise be wasted space, great way to gain additional storage space

packing slip

form that lists the items to be shipped and the recipient of the shipment

Raw materials warehouses (mod 1)

generally large in scale and designed to hold large quantities of bulk material

Work-in-process (WIP) warehouses (mod 1)

hold partially completed assemblies and products at various points along an assembly or production line

Unitizing and shipping (mod 1)

includes checking orders for completeness, packaging merchandise in appropriate shipping containers, preparing shipping documents, weighing shipments to determine shipping charges, accumulating orders by outbound carrier and in some cases, loading trucks.

Objective of materials handling in logistics (mod 2)

is the movement, protection, storage, and control of materials and products throughout the process of their manufacture and distribution, consumption, and disposal as they traverse the supply chain.

Pallet flow rack

made up of columns tilted down to allow materials to move down to the bottom of the incline (system uses FIFO)

General manager

maintains the overall revenue and cost management to ensure profitability

Drive-in rack

material handler drives into the racking to the farthest position to store materials (system uses LIFO)

FIFO (first in first out) (mod 2)

material ships out based on the expiration date of the product or based on the date the product enters the warehouse

Cantilever rack

offers support from the back of the racking

Honeycombing (mod 2)

once you fill a storage lane with pallets and then ship a few of the pallets, you will create open pallet positions in that lane

Packaging and/or pricing (mod 1)

optional and involves adding value by containerizing material for more convenient use.

Dunnage

packing material that protects the item being shipped

Push back rack

pallets are loaded onto carts or trays within the confines of the rack at the rack face

Logistics Analyst

performs a variety of analytical duties throughout the warehouse; responsible for managing and maintaining the warehouse master files and inventory data

Warehouse associate

performs basic warehousing activities including unloading, staging, and loading warehouse materials; put-away and picking

Warehouses (mod 1)

places where goods and materials are safely and efficiently stored until they are needed; designs should maximize the use of space, equipment, and labor; contains 4 basic areas: receiving, staging, storage, and value-added areas

Soko circles

quality circles where small groups of operators get together to coordinate problem-solving for quality issues

SKU Velocity

ranks fast, medium, and slow movers by comparing their individual movement relative to total activity

Warehousing (mod 1)

refers to any operation that stores, repackages, stages, sorts, or centralizes goods or materials and is a valuable tool in leveling the inefficiencies and unknown exceptions found throughout the supply chain.

Inventory manager/coordinator

responsible for keeping materials, parts, products and stock items supplied and readily accessible

Operations manager

responsible for managing the day-to-day activities on the operations floor

LIFO (last in first out) (mod 2)

ship last items received into the warehouse first

Block stacking (mod 2)

simplest and least expensive manner to store materials; sets materials on the warehouse floor in an organized manner

Shipping/Receiving Manager/Coordinator

supervises the shipment or receipt of outgoing or incoming materials, parts, or products within the warehouse facility; responsible for continuous improvements with the shipping and receiving processes

Best Practice Training

support the roles working in the warehouses Programs: safety and ergonomic training, scheduling, operator-management ratios, cross training, soko circles

Single-deep pallet racking

the benchmark storage model, most common type used, allows direct access to every pallet stored

Receiving (mod 1)

the most important warehouse process and the key to the success of all other activities; contains dock doors sufficient to accommodate the conveyance equipment that delivers material into the warehouse facility; receives materials into the warehouse; responsible for inspecting incoming materials to ensure that the right quantity was shipped and that it was not damaged in transit

Human Resource (HR) strategy

the plan to manage labor and design jobs so people running the operations are used effectively and efficiently

The goal of warehouse operations (mod 1)

to perform the warehousing activities in a manner that utilizes space, equipment, and labor most effectively

Warehouse processes

5 basic processes: receiving, put-away, inventory management, picking and shipping Receiving - most important Put-away involves defining warehouse locations, storage equipment to use, and item placement Inventory management: cycle count - periodic inspections and counts of inventory Picking: retrieving material from warehouse locations to complete an order; most labor intensive activities and most customer sensitive area. Activities include: paper pick list/ticket, radio frequency guided picking, voice directed picking, and pick-to-light Shipping: the final step in the warehouse process and the last opportunity to ensure that the order is correct before being shipped to a customer Warehouse picking types: discrete - involves a single associate picking an order zone - associate is assigned to a particular area batch - associate processes multiple orders at once wave - logical grouping based on criteria