Overview
This title presents timeless insights for planning and managing 21st-century warehouse operations. Despite today's just-in-time production mentality, with its efforts to eliminate warehouses and their inventory carrying costs, effective warehousing continues to play a critical bottom-line role for companies worldwide.
"World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling" covers today's state-of-the-art tools, metrics, and methodologies for dramatically increasing the effectiveness, accuracy, and overall productivity of warehousing operations. Written by one of today's recognized logistics thought leaders, this comprehensive resource provides authoritative answers on such topics as: the seven principles of world-class warehousing; warehouse activity profiling; warehouse performance measures; warehouse automation and computerization; receiving and put away; storage and retrieval operations; picking and packing; and, humanizing warehouse operations. “World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling" describes the processes and systems required for meeting the changing demands of warehousing.
Filled with practices from proven to innovative, it will help all logistics professionals improve the productivity, quality, and cycle time of their existing warehouse operations. Not too long ago, effective warehousing was a relatively straightforward progression of receiving, storing, and shipping. But in today's age of e-commerce, supply chain integration, globalization, and just-in-time methodology, warehousing has become more complex than at any time in the past - not to mention costlier. “World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling" breaks through the confusing array of warehouse technology, buzzwords, and third-party providers to describe the principles of warehousing required for the implementation of world-class warehousing operations. Holding up efficiency and accuracy as the keys to success in warehousing, it is the first widely published methodology for warehouse problem solving across all areas of the supply chain, providing an organized set of principles that can be used to streamline all types of warehousing operations. Case studies from Avon, Ford, Xerox, True Value Hardware, and others detail how today's most innovative logistics and supply chain managers are arriving at proven solutions to a wide variety of warehousing challenges. Topics discussed include: warehouse activity profiling - for identifying causes of information and material flow problems and pinpointing opportunities for improvement; warehouse performance measures - for monitoring, reporting, and benchmarking warehouse performance; storage and retrieval system selection - for improving storage density, handling productivity, and trade-offs in required capital investment; order picking strategies - for improving the productivity and accuracy of order fulfilment; and, computerizing warehousing operations - for profiling activity, monitoring performance, and simplifying operations. “World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling" integrates global and e-commerce issues as it addresses customization, information technology, performance analysis, expansion and contraction planning, and the overall role of the warehouse in logistics management and the supply chain. Filled with proven operational solutions, it will guide managers as they develop a warehouse master plan, one designed to minimize the effects of supply chain inefficiencies as it improves logistics accuracy and inventory management - and reduces overall warehousing expense.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Why have a Warehouse? - Warehouse Activity profiling: Mining for Gold - Measuring and Benchmarking Warehouse performance - Receiving and Put away principles - Pallet storage and Retrieval systems - Case picking systems - Small Item Picking systems - Order picking operations - Unitizing and shipping - Warehouse layout - Computerizing warehouse operations - Warehouse Workforce Design and Development
Review from Venkadesh Narayanan, Principal Consultant, Fhyzics
I read the chapter 9 on Unitizing and Shipping, the author starts the chapter with his observation that most of the best practices that apply on the inbound side is equally applicable on the outbound side as well. He recommends the following areas for improvement in the area of unitising and shipping:
Container optimization: The author says that this is the most neglected area in the supply chain and significant improvement can be done in containers of all kind such as cartons, totes, pallets, trailers, ocean containers, rail cars and air containers.
Container loading and void fill: Container load plan shall be developed by the shipper to increase the cube and weight utilisation. Even he recommends reusable dunnage and environmentally friendly dunnage for the supply chain.
Weigh checking: To find out any product or packaging errors, weight checking before loading into the contain is a good practice.
Automated direct loading: In a typical warehouse we have two staging areas one on the receiving side and the other on the shipping side. Direct loading refers to loading the vehicle right after picking without the use of staging area. This will tremendously reduce the use of manpower and the space.
Dock management: The vehicles shall be assigned the dock that is closest to the put-away location so that the movement of the men and material are minimised. Also innovations can be done on document reduction.
The book is very concise and presents the various best practices in warehouse with suitable pictures that definitely enhances the understanding of the reader.
