As companies and consumers continue to become more demanding, the
warehouse/distribution center (DC) becomes more important to the company's
overall strategy. Most organizations face challenges such as:
- Reduced
lead-times
- Smaller
shipment sizes
- More
frequent orders/deliveries
- JIT
delivery schedules
-
Compliance labeling
- SKU
proliferation
-
Increased quality inspection requirements
- Near
perfect inventory accuracy
- Space
limitations
While workloads continue to increase, management stresses the importance of
controlling and even reducing costs.
Understand Function
Whether designing a new warehouse/DC or revamping an existing operation, it is
critical to understand what functions the warehouse/DC will perform:
- Does the operation handle non-standard product and/or product configurations?
-
Will the operation perform cross-docking, flow thru, or other inventory
strategies?
-
How will product demand patterns be handled (fast movers versus slow movers,
seasonality, etc.)
-
What value-added services will the operation perform (returns management,
kitting, value-added labeling, etc.)?
-
Can the existing software and/or equipment handle the new design?
The answers to these and other questions will greatly impact the
design/redesign and cost/cost reduction of the operation.