#MULTICHANNEL ORDER MANAGER CLEARS SOFTWARE#
Make sure you have assigned someone responsible for your ongoing planning and warehouse space utilization analysis process.īrian Barry is president of F.New Jersey, N.J., May 11, 2022Multi-Channel Order Management (MOM) solutions are B2B software intended for merchants or brands with a primary focus on online commerce. Moving to new space is expensive and takes a lot of time. Warehouse space often represents 15% to 20% of the cost per order. Is there a return on investment for your solutions? An example of complexity could be moving racking to narrow aisles. For example, consider adding pallet rack tiers upward. Where you have a choice between a complex and simple solution, choose the simple solution. These can be expensive and are fairly permanent, but will maximize warehouse space utilization. If your building layout permits, consider the use of a mezzanine to house functions that do not require high-bay storage. If you have separate shipping and receiving docks, consider combining them to save space. See if your corrugated supplier can keep some inventory at its site for you, and take delivery every few days. If you have to store supplies or packing materials, try to manage the inventory to avoid overstocks. Review not only the effective use of the height of locations, but also the depth of storage for example, consider double-depth racking. Try to match vertical space needs with the building characteristics. Consider clear stacking height, column spacing, building impediments and overall process flow. Make sure you study your building to determine how it can best be utilized from a space standpoint.
If possible, consider cross docking large releases of back orders or single-line orders to reduce the amount of inventory requiring storage locations. How wide are your warehouse aisles? Try to design the minimum width required to match the material handling equipment used without compromising operating efficiency.
If you store and ship large items, consider utilizing some form of drop shipping to reduce your in-house inventory and costs. If you store a large quantity of excess inventory for a few items, consider some type of offsite storage for the excess, thus freeing up space for supporting the fulfillment operation. In forward picking, keep 4-7 days of sales by SKU to reduce replenishment. The same logic applies to locations where you store reserve or overstocks. Having various sizes of picking slots can facilitate this process.
Match the size and sales of the item to the right sized pick slot to maximize the utilization of the picking slot cube. This can be done during the putaway process and as a standalone function. If you have multiple locations for storing the same item, consider combining them to create better warehouse space utilization. We often see unused overhead space where large departments like packing and shipping are performed. Identify functions that do not require high ceilings in areas where lower stacking heights are dictated by the clear height. How much cubic feet of vertical space is not being used? Be sure to know how your design might impact your sprinkler layout and fire code. Investigate storage media to take advantage of your clear span height. Look up and make sure you’re using all the vertical space available. Include seasonal peak trends and a thorough volume analysis of inbound and outbound product flow. Thoroughly understand the flow and utilization of the current layout, including rack configuration, slotting/pick philosophy, receiving, putaway, replenishment, inventory management and packing and shipping. Quantify your storage profile in terms of capacity and utilization. These are key reports when discussing space utilization with management.īeyond the initial step of addressing potential overstock, here are 15 ways you can improve your warehouse space utilization: The Starting Point Should this be the first step in your fulfillment cent space study? Do you have inventory reporting that shows by SKU the weeks of supply and the inventory turnover? This will show how many weeks it will take to sell off the inventory. One of the first and toughest things to address is whether you can reduce space used by focusing on the age of the inventory and liquidating overstock.
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