I am analyzing one operation of distribution with about 600 SKUs where the picking occurs using the method man to product. Some items with 2 or minus touches by week are located in subdivided pallets with up to 4 products in floor and on the first pair of beams of the pallet racks and concentrated in a few aisles.
But the efficiency of the cube usage is low and the travel distance is still high.
My idea is to use the classical solution of shelving, but maybe the dynamic pick face technique would be feasible.
What other solutions do you use or have you used in the past with good results and low implementation costs?
Thank you in advance!
From a similar project. Improve the ergonomics.
Ensure that the lighting is at the required level of lumens. Warehouses are often dimly lit. This improved our case greatly. Besides bright, improve the 'look' of the surroundings. Make pick lists in the same order as the storage of SKUs; thus, the flow of people, carts and SKUs is the same. Use bar code readers to deliver, display and confirm pick lists. (More expensive)
Hand picking is best with products on the sides, easily reached, and the container for orders down the middle. Use a system to check off items as collected. You can use load cells to check the weight of the order. You can to this a couple of times along the route, if needed.
Use an audit approach to check a percentage of the orders and improve the process to eliminate systemic problems.
Organize SKUs such that the most frequently picked items are at the beginning of the route or at the beginning of rows and near the collection point.
Thank you for your contribution Vincent. However, in this project particularly, the main problem is to get a reduction in the travel time through the improvement of pick faces for the slow mover items.
I do not know the present layout or the size of items being picked.
As mentioned previously, put items to be picked in facing rows close together so that only the cart can pass between them. This makes picking from both sides easier. Make as many dual rows as needed. New stock is feed from the back side of the rows.
If the items are small, use item buckets with a roller conveyor in the middle. In this case you may need someone on each side of the conveyor.
I have seen this arrangement in many distribution centers. It works well for small and medium sized items.
Thank you again Vincent. And sorry for the delay in my return.
I resolved the problem using a "heat map" with monthly reviews to implement the picking productivity of the main SKUs (As & Bs) and the Cs SKUs was arranged in a set of about 40 pallet slots in one single row of the warehouse. So the desired gain in the travel time was got as result of the heat map.
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