Slotting a ware house for fulfillment

We discussed about how picking is going to become important in e-commerce a few posts back. The strategy of picking from store ware houses instead of centralized warehouses is a good move, but we should never over-look another warehouse operation that is as important as picking - slotting.

In fact, slotting is what determines how we design the warehouse in the first place. This statement is obviously slightly exaggerated - but it is one of the main factors.

Before we go into why slotting is really important, Lets us call out that stocking of store racks from store warehouses is a completely different operation called plannograming. Though it is very closely related to sorting in a few concepts, It is for a completely different user trying to satisfy a completely different objective - how to make sure I pick all items on my shopping iist.

Why is picking challenging

There are a few things that are very important in picking. To understand this better, we need a statistic - close to 40% of activities in the warehouse is enable the picking process.

Picking is important and needs to overcome the following challenges:

• Pick times are very important. We need to keep them low
• Pick accuracy is also important. We need to keep substitutes as low as possible
• Pick through-put is also important. This is related to pick time - but means that we need to complete the orders and get it shipped.

The challenges that a picker faces are:

• Having to read labels because so many products with similar names are kept close to each other
• Having to wait for stock of high volume product
• Difficulty in picking because of product packaging

The list is endless, but the above 3 should paint a good story.

Why is slotting important

Slotting makes sure that the most obvious challenges for the pickers are solved. 

It uses the knowledge of products, packaging and orders and helps minimize errors and maximize through-put.

Some examples are:

• Open packaging so that it is easy to pick
• Keep the high volume products close by for easy picking
• Keep products with confusing labels far apart
• Keep complimentary products close by - that are bought together
• Know when there is a promotion and stock accordingly

Does Slotting differ

Slotting does differ. 

Slotting for moving products from a central warehouse to a store warehouse is different from slotting for picking. It is also different from slotting for stocking.

Most of the store warehouses are currently designed for stocking the store racks and hence are not really designed for picking. When retailers change strategy, they need to understand that without changing their slotting stratagy, their picking process will not be efficient.

Concentrating on picking might not solve problems. It comes from concentrating on 40% of those activities that enable picking.