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We Need Space!

Post author By John Stewart
Post date October 21, 2024
Featured

The warehouse needs space. What’s the process? Explore more content here.

When the warehouse needs space, a project manager starts and finishes a project using a process.

The process involves making a series of key decisions.

Inventory analysis with growth applied allows you to explore storage options.

Understand the total space for storage and other activities to determine whether the existing space will work.

If a site search is necessary, explore the feasibility of candidate facilities to make the best business case.

Use the business case to seek approval for the new site.

Follow the process to get the warehouse the space it needs.

For help with space planning or making a business case, contact us.

The Landlord’s Dilemma

Post author By John Stewart
Post date July 29, 2024
Featured

The landlord presents specifications for a warehouse property. Although pallet capacity can differ by storage strategy, prospective tenants could complete a leasing transaction more quickly if the listing included an estimate of pallet storage capacity.

A landlord and a real estate agent discuss a warehouse for lease. The agent says clients ask about pallet capacity. Neither the landlord nor the agent has an answer.

Real Estate Listing

Post author By John Stewart
Post date July 25, 2024
Featured

The traditional warehouse listing leaves prospective tenants to answer the question: what is the capacity of this large building? We advocate including a storage proof of concept in the listing to expedite approval by the buyer. Learn how we can do this for you here

With a storage proof of concept included in the listing, a tenant can envision how the building suits the need.

Step 1: Input

3DC requires a few known inputs to generate a storage design.

Inputs include the building dimensions and the type of storage.

Step 2: Run

The inputs generate a 3D view of the storage within the building constraints. The report includes data about storage capacity.

3DC output includes a 3D view of the storage and a data set with size and capacity information.

Step 3: Export to CAD

With one click, 3DC uses the storage data to generate a CAD file.

The CAD file demonstrates how the storage design fits the building space. The CAD layout gives credibility to the upgraded real estate listing.

Step 4: Publish

The upgraded real estate listing expedites lease approval.

The storage capacity proof of concept gives tenants the confidence to move forward with the warehouse lease.

Explore further.

New Warehouse: Delays

Post author By John Stewart
Post date November 4, 2024

Delays to a new warehouse create risk for all stakeholders. Risk can manifest as higher cost, lower revenue, or lost business.

Warehouse delays create risks for stakeholder such as Operations, Construction, Real Estate, Rack Sales, and third party logistics (3PL).

The Operator makes a business case to justify the new warehouse.

Construction for new warehouses should consider wall heights and column patterns that best work for warehouse storage.

Real Estate agents can go beyond listing documents to help clients visualize how a building would serve as the client's warehouse.

Rack Sales can help the client explore various rack types, system heights, and aisle widths.

Third party logistics service providers can present concept drawings and detailed processes for a turnkey operation.

Storage Metric

Post author By John Stewart
Post date September 11, 2024

Why area per location?

Area per location as a metric offers two important benefits:

Estimating incremental capacity. A quick way to understand how many additional storage locations can be added to an existing facility.
Understanding storage efficiency. A foundation for making business cases for storage improvement and for assigning space cost to inventory.

Measure the footprint of a storage bay. Divide the bay area by the number of storage locations in the bay. Area per location can be applied to vacant floorspace to estimate the number of new locations.

Benchmark the current facility’s storage profile to understand area per location and the cost of space per location.

Benchmark: Divide total space by the number of locations. Use the area per location to allocate space cost to each storage location.

Explore how alternative storage media changes the number of locations and the associated space cost per location.

Use the benchmark to compare what would happen to the space cost per location under different storage scenarios.

Make a business case.

Use the space cost per location to justify changes to the storage design.

Material Flow Map

Post author By John Stewart
Post date September 4, 2024

You can map the visual flow of the warehouse. Supplement the map with data to show the benefits of change.

Map the "nodes". A node is the midpoint of a zone where a material flow starts or stops.

Quantify the volume and distance of each material flow. Define each flow in terms of node-to-node distance and volume in units.

Define the capacity of the equipment and how quickly the equipment completes a material flow.

Capture details. A material flow has time components related to travel, sub-tasks and the relay of information.

Organize the data. Prepare the data to be analyzed. Build data tables to support business case development.

Make business cases. Use your volume data to compare how different equipment or space configurations can improve the operation.

We can help!

Optimize Storage

Post author By John Stewart
Post date August 26, 2024

Optimize Space with Storage

Can you get more storage from your warehouse space? The first step is to examine inventory. Calculate the pallets per item for each item.

If the average pallet inventory for a given item exceeds eight, the storage for that item can be optimized with deep storage.

How does deep storage optimize space?

Deep rack devotes more floorspace to storage and less floorspace to aisles.

The space needed to store 1,000 pallets in space is reduced when single-deep rack is exchanged for 2-deep, 4-deep, or deeper solutions.

How do you go forward?

Decide which deep storage solution(s) to use. Assign items to storage type. Consider the operation needs and budget feasibility. Obey inventory policies. Create an analysis that looks like this:

Calculate pallets per item and sort the items by the number of pallets. Assign each item to an appropriate storage type.

Compare deep storage results

Compare the space needed for deep storage to your standard storage. The impact might surprise you!

The example shows a deep storage solution uses 22% less space than a standard storage solution.

Contact us to discuss!

Use our contact page to send us a note. We can set up a call to discuss how these ideas can add value to your facility.

Forward Pick

Post author By John Stewart
Post date August 14, 2024

What Is Forward Pick?

Forward pick condenses current demand in a small footprint to allow for fast, efficient order fulfillment. E-commerce forces manufacturers and distributors to adopt strategies for faster fulfillment of small orders.

Companies fulfill orders faster by adopting forward pick. Inventory to support current demand moves from reserve storage to the condensed footprint of a forward pick module.

How To Se Up Forward Pick

The first step is to understand the fulfillment cycle. The fulfillment cycle is subject to a cutoff time, typically the end of a work shift or the departure of an outbound truck.

First, know the cycle. When does picking end? The cycle can be the end of a shift or an entire week. Each company has its own cycle.

The size of the pick module is a function of the inventory requirements. Analyze items to understand the demand. Set the inventory level required for the pick module.

Analyze item demand to set inventory levels. Plan to replenish faster-moving items more frequently than slower-moving items.

The pick module storage media should allow for safe and efficient order fulfillment. Maintain compliance with inventory policies, e.g., FIFO.

The storage media for the pick module support both inventory and operational requirements.

Size the storage media to hold required inventory levels. Add travel aisles to create a footprint for the forward pick module.

Create a space plan for the inventory. Include inventory, storage media and travel aisles.

If you need help with picking strategy or forward pick design, contact us here.

Design Budget

Post author By John Stewart
Post date August 10, 2024

A tale of two budgets addresses a common perception that warehouses don’t warrant investment in design. In the first instance, the CFO is likely to approve the budget for a warehouse if the costs are based on historical benchmarks.

The COO presents a warehouse budget to the CFO. The CFO agrees with the budget since the budget uses historical benchmarks.

The challenge to design costs can occur for any reason. The CFO might believe a simple warehouse of racks and forklifts doesn’t need any design work. Or the CFO might expect the COO or staff should be able to develop a simple warehouse design.