According to the rough statistics of Jiuwei Science and Technology, at present, the operation of most warehouses and logistics centers has almost focused on the traditional work of building warehouses, buying equipment, and rebuilding and expanding. However, the more important daily work warehouse location planning and adjustment have been neglected. As we all know, the effective distribution of logistics in the supply chain is one of the decisive factors to win the competitive advantage. No matter when or where, manufacturers only choose the most effective logistics warehousing and distribution methods, in order to improve the level of customer service, in order to establish a competitive advantage.

According to the rough statistics of Jiuwei Technology, at present, the operation of most warehouses and logistics centers has almost all put their energy into the traditional work of building warehouses, buying equipment, and rebuilding and expanding. However, the more important daily work is ignored.Warehouse location planningwith adjustments. As we all know, the effective distribution of logistics in the supply chain is one of the decisive factors to win the competitive advantage. No matter when or where, manufacturers only choose the most effective logistics warehousing and distribution methods, in order to improve the level of customer service, in order to establish a competitive advantage.

The pure walking time of traditional warehouse staff in the warehouse accounts for more than 60% of the total operation time. In view of the above situation, the rational allocation of cargo according to the liquidity of goods can significantly improve the efficiency of the operation. In combination with practical experience, we find that location planning is an important design consideration in determining warehouse productivity. With a small amount of investment, re-planning and adjusting the warehouse location can achieve the business objectives of improving operational efficiency and improving user service levels. How to make full use of the existing warehouse resources under the premise of minimum investment, reduce the cost of warehouse operations, and improve user satisfaction? Jiuwei logistics warehouse planning more than 20 years of experience, to discuss this topic with you.

1. What is location planning?

In the material handling operation of traditional warehouse, unloading, storage and transportation, picking and loading account for 40% of the total operation time. The remaining 60% of the operation time is the walking time of the operators. Considering the cost of labor in the traditional warehouse cost ratio of 40 to 50%, the above set of figures are more worthy of our attention. In traditional warehouses, labor costs reach 40-50% of total warehouse costs, and more than 30% of warehouse costs are spent on the way back and forth. Many logistics managers are surprised by this number. From another perspective, when was the last time you analyzed the liquidity of goods in the warehouse and adjusted the location? If you forget it, then it is likely that your warehouse already belongs to the low-efficiency "traditional warehouse" mentioned above.

Because the operators spend most of their time walking in the warehouse, from the perspective of improving the efficiency of logistics resource utilization, reducing the cost of warehouse operations can start from shortening the walking distance. Reasonable planning of cargo is the best way to achieve this goal. The main goal of location planning is to minimize or even eliminate travel time when handling any SKU.
(1) What are the benefits of reasonable planning?

The definition of cargo space planning is "to reasonably incorporate goods into warehouse facilities to achieve the goal of optimizing material handling and improving space utilization". For example, allocating high-turnover goods to a location close to the receiving area can increase the speed of storage. However, warehousing is only a one-time operation, and if the operator needs to replenish or pick the goods multiple times, it is more advantageous to allocate the goods to a location close to the shipping platform or picking area.

The planning and adjustment of cargo location is an effective means to keep logistics in an ideal state of operation. However, because many warehouse managers do not fully understand the significance of this work, ignoring the regular location planning and adjustment, until someone complained that the warehouse is not enough, found that the passage is full of goods, only to realize the seriousness of the problem.

Through location planning and adjustment, the following effects can be achieved:
A, according to the reasonable order of picking goods, can reduce the number of picking personnel
B, corresponding to the location specifications, the allocation of the corresponding number of unit goods, can reduce the number of replenishment personnel.
C, balance the workload of the operator, can reduce the operation cycle, improve the work flow
D, will be easy to confuse the goods assigned to different picking area, can improve the accuracy of picking
E, with the theory of ergonomics to plan the best placement of goods, can avoid job injuries
F, in the picking path, the weight of goods planning in the front end, afraid of bumping goods in the back end, can reduce the damage of goods
G, according to the height of the goods to allocate cargo space, in the picking of goods to achieve layered close stacking, can improve the efficiency of pallet stacking, improve the utilization rate of truck carriages.
h, by adjusting the warehouse layout, improve space utilization, can delay or avoid reconstruction investment.
I, the distribution of goods classification and stacking, can reduce the logistics center user side of the secondary sorting workload, improve the overall efficiency of the supply chain.
(2) the importance of location planning and adjustment

In the warehouse put into use early, should start the location planning and adjustment. The reason is that no matter how perfect the initial location planning is, the changing business environment will eventually cause the current planning to no longer apply. In the daily operation of the warehouse, business matters change the existing arrangement of goods from time to time, and the fire protection regulations must be taken into account. Day after day, the reasonable allocation and adjustment of goods space are gradually forgotten. This is the reason why many logistics centers are always not enough to go to the warehouse. At this time, the re-planning of the location is often arduous. Jiuwei believes that the adjustment of cargo space is a routine work and should be avoided until the problems accumulate. Regular cargo space adjustment can avoid falling into the above dilemma.
Whether it is to start building a new warehouse or to find ways to improve the layout of the existing warehouse, a reasonable method of placing goods is an effective means to save investment and improve the efficiency of the warehouse. Through database software or spreadsheet applications, we can complete a warehouse location planning adjustment in a few days. The software for location planning and design and daily location adjustment integrated with WMS has also been developed, and the investment in purchasing such software is only a fraction of the potential benefits it brings.

2. cargo location planning and adjustment, where to start?

In order to ensure the effect, there are several preparations that need to be implemented step by step before adjusting the location. Including: select location planning strategy, clear location planning objectives, data collection and location planning needs analysis. Without a thorough analysis in the preparation phase, it is impossible to achieve the desired adjustment effect.

(1) Clear objectives

No matter in the face of any goods and cargo space planning project, clear work objectives is the first work content. A clear goal can avoid detours and repetitions in the follow-up work. If the goal is not clear, it is likely to find that the direction is wrong in the middle of the work.
Goals are divided into two aspects-effective goals and restrictive factors. The effect target is usually defined by the operation efficiency improvement index after the location adjustment. Efficiency improvement indicators usually include shortening walking distance, reducing replenishment workload, balancing operator workload, and improving picking efficiency. Restrictive factors refer to the items that must be considered in the planning and adjustment of the location, and these restrictive factors are usually met at the expense of the efficiency of warehouse operations. These factors include the weight of goods, the size of the cargo space, the accuracy of picking requirements and the efficiency of the logistics center client. The effect target is usually defined by the operation efficiency improvement index after the location adjustment.
Once the above objectives are clear, they should be prioritized. For example, the most basic principle of cargo space planning and adjustment is to determine the distance between the cargo space and the receiving/delivery area according to the mobility of the goods. However, this is often not the highest priority consideration. Because, although the above method can reduce the walking distance of picking, there are many other factors that should be considered together. If factors such as cargo space capacity, weight of goods, classified storage requirements and size of goods are not taken into account, although considerable operational efficiency can be achieved by reducing the walking distance, it may also lead to adverse consequences such as blocked handling paths, damaged goods, large replenishment volumes and poor operational safety.

Therefore, when considering a target factor should take into account the impact on other warehouse operations. For example, for office equipment distribution logistics center, we must fully consider the order of goods. Compared with other objective factors, preventing the breakage of goods should be the highest goal of this kind of logistics center. In the picking operation, heavy goods, not afraid of bumping goods, such as cushions, etc. (although the turnover rate of the goods may not be high), should be stacked on the bottom layer of the pallet goods; Paper or other whole boxes of goods can be considered on the top of the pallet goods in the picking process, such as stationery racks and calculators. Correspondingly, the goods location planning sequence of the picking area should determine the order of goods according to the above requirements, and ensure the quality of goods through reasonable stacking. From another angle, in the fragile category of goods, the location planning should also take into account their respective turnover rates to select the appropriate location.

(2) Data collection

After the planning objectives are clear, the selection and collection of planning analysis data is the second task. Planning objectives determine what data should be collected. Data should include location characteristics, product requirements and product documentation.

The following are some basic data that may be used in data analysis: location identity information, location type (such as storage location or picking location), storage and transportation equipment type (such as pallet, corridor shelf, flat stacking method, etc.), picking equipment type (such as pallet flow force shelf, carton flow force cargo, location depth, and location carrying capacity. From WMS or ERP, you can directly download the order or shipping documents to obtain the goods order information. Usually, in order to find out the seasonal changes in demand for goods, SKU long-term growth/elimination changes and other logistics characteristics, the time span of such documents should be a few months, to more than a year. The above information is also an important basis for choosing the whole plate, whole box or zero picking strategy.

(3) Demand analysis

After the data collection work is completed, the third work content is logistics demand analysis. The purpose of the demand analysis is to determine the pick and replenishment attributes for each item. The first step in demand analysis is to analyze the number of shipments and picking methods for each item. The analysis method is to decompose the line items of each order into the whole order picking, the whole case picking, and the zero picking category. Furthermore, all SKU are classified into ABC, with the highest turnover rate of Class A goods and the lowest turnover rate of Class C goods. Generally, Class A goods only account for 10-20% of the total SKU distribution of goods, and it is precisely this small number of goods that account for 70-90% of the total number of items shipped.

The next job is to define the appropriate picking equipment for different items. First, use the data analysis mentioned above to calculate the unit replenishment volume of each item and determine the turnover rate of the goods. This turnover rate is the basis for selecting picking equipment. If an item requires two units of replenishment per day, its location should be larger than that of only one unit of replenishment per day. Finally, it is necessary to count the number of orders for each item and determine the "number of touches" of the item ". The number of daily/weekly/monthly orders of goods is the basis for determining the selection of specific picking locations-goods with a higher "touch frequency" should correspond to the most suitable location for high-frequency picking.

3. cargo location planning strategy

After completing the planning requirements analysis, the specific goods layout work can begin. For a logistics integrated system with multiple functional areas and a variety of picking equipment, the location arrangement can be implemented in two steps: first, the corresponding goods are defined in different areas, and then each kind of goods is planned to a specific location. The specific location arrangement follows the principle of "determining the planning target" above, thus completing the location planning idea of a whole system. After planning the warehouse according to this method, I believe your warehouse will be greatly changed compared with before.