Skip to main content

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.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apple Watch - Managing "Out of stock"

Apple is credited for a lot of things - the least of which is managing retail operations. However, that seems to be a key element of product launches with apple these days.
Post a Comment
Read more

Principles for developing systems that are anti-fragile

I have been trying to make sense of what anti-fragility means and how do I use that in my day job. As a Business Principal, I tend to work with the abstract but orchestrate a program of work that needs details. This makes my job a little difficult in the terms of designing for more self-preserving systems that preserve the spirit of the abstracted strategy or vision. I came across an article from Daniel Russo on anti-fragility and his attempt at creating a manifesto similar to the manifesto for agile software development. For more reading on Daniel Russo, here is his profile:  http://djrusso.github.io More reading from his paper here:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050916302290 This post is an attempt for me to understand what goes into developing a program that uses every opportunity to strengthen itself and achieve its objective - the vision.  I liked the approach of principles for developing systems that are anti-fragile. It i...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Journey in Inquiry and Advocacy - An experience report

It is recently that I have consciously started practicing Inquiry. Let me explain. I am a consultant who constantly looks at the situation and comes up and implements the solution to progress from there. While I do that, I constantly use Inquiry as a means to progress - one of the key facilitation technique specifically in multiple stakeholder situations.
Post a Comment
Read more