BROKEN CASE PICKING SYSTEMS

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World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling

Unfortunately, the lowest initial-cost alternative may not be the most cost-effective alternative or the alternative that meets the prioritized needs of a warehouse. With bin shelving systems, savings in initial cost and main tenance may be offset by inflated floor space, excessive labor requirements, and/or inadequate item protection. Space is frequently underutilized in bin shelving systems because the full inside dimensions of a shelving unit are rarely usable. Also, the height of bin shelving units may be limited by the order picker’s reaching height. As a result, the available building cube alsomay be underutilized (Figures 7.4 through 7.6). There are two consequences of the low storage space utilization. First, a large amount of floorspace is required to store the products. The more expensive it is to own and operate the space, the more expensive low space utilization becomes. Second, the greater the floorspace, the greater the area which must be traveled by the order pickers, and thus, the greater the labor requirement and costs. Two additional drawbacks of bin shelving are supervisory problems and item security/protection problems. Supervisory problems arise because it is difficult to supervise people through a maze of bin shelving units spread

Figure 7.4 Bin shelving with pick density storage and pick-to-light for video game picking in a large toy retailer’s distribution center (Happinet, Tokyo, Japan)

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