You Might Have a Bad Warehouse If... You pick cartons from the bottom of the stack

Sometimes folks try to find the simplest, most convenient solution to their problem. While on one hand we see way too many instances of "analysis paralysis," the following anecdote, which came to us from the esteemed Tom Speh, Senior Director of MBA Programs at Miami University, shows there are times when no one seems to be doing much thinking at all.

Some time back, Tom had occasion to visit with a distributor we will call "Nameless, Inc." A typical shipping order for Nameless was one case of this, two cases of that, and so on. Full pallet orders were less common. Tom observed pickers at Nameless would frequently pick their shipping orders directly from their bulk storage area which was stored using a "Block Stacked" method with one pallet stacked on top of another (example photo below).

Now block stacking is not necessarily a bad practice when used properly. But Tom's example below shows how NOT to use block storage.

This particular warehouse had pallets stacked up to 28 feet high. Tom saw when order pickers came to a location with product stacked more than one pallet high, the order picker would often pick their product out of the corner of the stack on the lowest pallet (it was a lot faster this way of course!). Tom didn't have a real photo, so I've tried to simulate this practice of picking from the bottom of the stack with the graphic below.

As you might guess, the company had lots of damage in the warehouse as whole stacks of product would often tumble down once you have picked several cases from the lower pallet.

To fix their damage issue, the company issued a new policy where the folk lift driver would go get a second picker, and ride him up to the top of the stack on the forks so he could pick off a couple of cases from the top pallet. They stopped the damage problem.... however labor costs were a bit extreme!

How might Nameless have addressed this better? For one thing, we believe this is a case where they should have implemented a "Forward Pick Area" as shown below, where cases of product are placed close to the shipping area and can be easily picked whole or perhaps even broken down further for picking of individual units. We will discuss that more in one of our other blog entries.

For a space constrained facility where there may not be room for a separate picking area, consider using the lowest rack spaces down each aisle for storage of broken pallets and do the carton picks from there, moving a full pallet down to that area as the cartons are consumed. This is shown in the following picture.

Keeping this area low can also enhance performance through elimination of the constant raising and lowering of the lift.

One other tip... Locate the case pick area on a shelf that is waist or chest high. This will provide improved ergonomics and reduce the potential for injuries related to bending or reaching. The Warehouse Education and Research Council recognizes the best practice is to have all pick/pack areas laid out ergonomically to reduce employee fatigue and injury.

For those wanting to learn more about picking operations, we recommend the following resources:

• One quick way to sense check your picking area to determine if it is efficient is to check your lines/orders/cases/pallets picked per hour against industry benchmarks. The "best practice" warehouses typically have a units picked per hours of nearly double that of the median warehouse. You can find this and additional benchmarking information in the latest DC Velocity / WERC Study "best practices make (nearly) perfect" in the April issue of DC Velocity.

• Read the section on Picking and Packing Processes in the WERC "Warehouse & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide" available from the WERC Online Store.

• WERC members should review the paper on "Storage Media Selection" in the Research area of the website under "Equipment."

I'd love your feedback - and would love your help in sharing more bad warehouse stories to help educate the profession of what NOT to do. If you've got an example of a bad warehouse practice, send me your story and photo(s) to [email protected]. If I feature your example in one of my blogs, WERC will send you a free copy of the WERC Warehousing & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide ($160 value). Your submission can be anonymous if you like so you don't get your boss or company in trouble! I'll be collecting examples all year and the winner will receive a free warehouse assessment by Supply Chain Visions, a $10,000 value. The runner up will win a free conference registration to the WERC conference ($1,375 value).

Thank you Tom Speh for your bad warehouse story! We'll get a copy of the WERC Warehousing & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guides in the mail to you as a thank you for sharing your wisdom and fun!

You might have a bad warehouse if... your cycle counting involves labels and a sharpie.

My first blog on labeling with Post It Notes was such a hit, I thought I would share another good story involving creative uses for labels. The good news - these were at least permanent labels instead of Post It Notes!

This week's bad warehouse used labels and a sharpie marker system to "provide instant awareness as to the current inventory level and to help reduce the time spent doing cycle counts." The inventory control team would place a label on the boxes and pallets of product in each storage bin. The physical count of product would be written on the label allowing warehouse personnel to know at a glance how many units were contained in the box or on the pallet. As product was picked from stock, the picker would simply change the quantity on the label with a sharpie marker to keep a running balance of inventory. Some pickers would scribble through the old quantity, some would simply write a new number, assuming that the next person would intuitively know which number was the right one (maybe it is the one with the circle around it.)

The photos below are examples of these bad practices

 

I strongly recommend that companies NOT have a physical count openly visible and associated with what should be in a bin location. Writing the count on a label introduces poor inventory count practices, basically telling your counters that accuracy is not important, not to mention the cost of labels and time spent marking them. Best practices recommend the use of "Blind Counts" where the individual performing the count does a physical assessment of quantity on hand.

Opened containers of product should always be re-counted, you cannot know how many hands may have had access to the contents. What's that you say? What if we do the count and then tape the box securely? You may be surprised at how often we see re-packaged boxes which do not contain the original count, or the count written on the box - or even the right product in the box! This is like letting somebody fiddle around with the contents of your bank account and expecting the balance to be accurate.

You can find a good guide to cycle counting at the Tompkins Associates web site. Look for the white paper "A Guide to Implementing a World-Class Cycle Counting Program."

Also check out Kevin Collins' blog entry on "Inventory and Warehouse Management Best Practices: Cycle Counting" on the SmartTurn website.

And of course, I always recommend the Warehousing Education and Research Council's "Warehousing & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide" available from the WERC Online Store. WERC provides simple a benchmarking tool to help you understand how your Storage and Inventory Control Processes stack up.

I'd love your feedback - and would love your help in sharing more bad warehouse stories to help educate the profession on what NOT to do. If you've got an example of a bad warehouse practice, send me your story and photo(s) to [email protected] . If I feature your example in one of my blogs, WERC will send you a free copy of the WERC Warehousing & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide ($160). Your submission can be anonymous if you like so you don't get your boss or company in trouble! I'll be collecting examples all year and the winner will receive a free warehouse assessment by Supply Chain Visions, a $10,000 value. The runner up will win a free conference registration to the WERC conference ($1,375 value).