I did warehouse optimization 10-15 years ago, primarily with large grocery warehouses with ~10,000 sku’s (dry goods, not produce). Not sure if this is the advice you are looking for. But here goes.

As far as going vertical here are some considerations:

Talk to an architect or building code specialist so you don’t get stuck trying to become compliant after the fact:

·         Building codes frequently restrict the amount of mezzanine space in a warehouse

·         Sprinkler may be required and they are bad enough installing in a new build, horrible to install once the shelves have been filled

·         Additional stairs to meet exiting, including directly out of the building, may be required.

In my mind the most important aspect will be re-optimizing you stock layout

Hopefully you have been diligent keeping your dataset accurate and have been monitoring stock velocity, size, weights, etc... Back in the day I spent the majority of my time cleaning up crappy grocery warehouse data before getting down to actual work with re-organizing it.

My general assessment of warehouse data work is that the tasks are pretty straight forward and simple, it’s the sheer volume of data you need to work through that makes it difficult. I used MS Access to bring some sanity to it. Some programming skills are needed, though I was able to get by with what I learned in first year university (and barely passed). Thanks stack exchange (coding website)! With that I would actually build a full model of the warehouse, including the racking components so I would know how much was required.

Product Layout

Typically Higher density will lower your pick efficiency due to going up and down stairs.

Slides tend not to be a good solutions, though if the items are fairly homogenous in size packaging, durability and weight it might work.

Obviously need to put a lot of time and effort into re-slotting your items (as mentioned in Planning):

 -position fastest moving items in the golden zone, typically middle shelves, (for the average height employee)

 -determine overstock locations

 -shelf openings that allow for easy retrieving and stocking of product

Automation

There were lots of good options 15 years ago, and I am sure there are even more today for much cheaper. But again, you need to use your data to drive this. Not everything is well suited for high speed picking. Sometimes it is more cost effective to use shelves.

Anyways, hope some of that is useful to you!

Hi Kevin

Thank you