ORDER PICKING OPTIMIZATION

Chapter eight RightPick RightShip: Order Picking and Shipping

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Develop and Implement a Reslotting Program Perhaps a more difficult question is the timing of a general reslotting of the entire warehouse. Unfortunately, there is very little science to go on here. Most warehouses have a natural demand rhythm. For example, L.L. Bean, the mail-order catalog operator, drops four main catalogs a year—winter, spring, fall, and summer. It is natural in this case to reslot the warehouse every season. In some operations, there is a slow period at the first of the year. That may be a perfect time to reslot the warehouse. Avon Products has 26 promotional campaigns a year. The warehouse has to be reslotted 26 times a year. Lifeway Christian Resources Lifeway Christian Resources publishes and distributes Christian media (i.e., books, periodicals, cassette tapes, CDs, videos, etc.) and gift items to book stores (retail distribution), churches (church distribution), and individuals (mail order) all over the United States. More than 15,000 items are housed in its 600,000-square-foot distribution center in downtown Nashville. The reserve inventory for each business unit is centralized and housed in high bay random locations. The forward picking inventory is housed in dedicated locations on separate low-bay picking floors for each business unit. Because the business is a low-margin business, there is little or no capital available for highly mechanized systems. Hence the design strategy is to eliminate and streamline as much work content as possible. The slotting and layout plan for the retail picking floor is illustrated in Figure 8.19. Note the main horseshoe-shaped pick line in the center of the warehouse. While traversing this pick line, order pickers pick approximately 20 orders per pass. A specially designed cart organized to hold 24 orders allows pickers to quickly and efficiently sort individual picks into orders as they go. Items with the highest cube movement are housed in a carton flow rack in the center of the layout. Because each picking tour will pass each flow-rack bay, the picking activity is purpose

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