#8. Mismatch of storage racking and product
The physical storage systems in your warehouse are equally important as the information systems. In fact the two go hand in hand. The simplest way to know if you have a mismatch between your stock and your storage system is to walk through your warehouse and look to see how much air you can see around your product. If there is space around (usually above) every product then you have a mismatch. The impact of this low storage density is to spread out your stock further than it needs to be. This increases travel path, and warehouse efficiency is all about travel path because:
travel path = time = labour hours = CO$T.
The other impact of a low storage density is that your warehouse will fill up quicker than it otherwise would. This can have you thinking about moving when all you need to do is buy some new racking.
There are abundant choices of racking in both the new and second hand market (if you are flexible about your spec. and less fussy about appearance). The mainstay of storage systems are pallet racking and steel shelving, but there are also long span shelving, drawer systems, plastic bin systems, carton flow racking, pallet flow racking, combination shelving and mezzanine floor systems. Depending on your start point it is possible to double the storage capacity of your warehouse and improve productivity at the same time simply by installing more appropriate racking in a revised layout.
Before buying anything you need at least the advice of a storage systems consultant to help you decide exactly what you need. This advice is free (and can be very good if you go to a reputable re-seller) when you buy the racking; but it is a bit like the advice you get from a financial consultant who is paid by commission from the investment products he sells, i.e. time constrained, limited to the products they sell and biased towards their high margin products.
Given that you will live with the purchase and its impact on your productivity for many years. Racking never wears out so it is there until you decide to change it. Racking never forces you to change, you must decide. When you decide to change it will be worthwhile choosing your storage systems as part of an overall warehouse re-engineering project to maximise your investment and gain an ongoing cost reduction in your warehouse.
There are a number of things to consider when buying storage systems:
- How much stock on hand you keep of each item,
- what you are likely to stock in future,
- the physical characteristics of your stock
- bulk cartons or pallets
- small parts, spare parts
- small boxes
- eaches or unit level
- any special storage conditions
- dangerous goods
- temperature control
- batch and expiry or use by dating
- high security storage
- how fast it turns over (its movement velocity)
- your order profile;
- many/few lines per order,
- bulky/ small order size,
- high/low order volume
- how you plan to pick
- the capabilities (or lack thereof) of your business system
Careful consideration of your storage systems in the context of the characteristics of your business and its future growth is an investment you must make if you are considering a major change to your warehouse. Once you have installed the racking then you have locked in a productivity potential that will effectively become invisible to you (locked in means it cannot easily be changed and you cease to manage it).
Once you have decided that you need some new racking, you must also decide where to put it. Indeed the size and shape of your space and how you layout your racks will have a big impact on your racking specification. This layout must be at least done on an accurate two dimensional layout on either paper or suitable CAD software. A racking re-seller will often draw up a layout for you if you are buying a substantial amount of racking.
We use and recommend Trimble Sketch Up which is free to download and the basics can be learned in an afternoon. See the Logistics Help website for some examples and models you can use in the Sketch Up 3D Warehouse online.
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