A warehouse reorganizes and repackages product. Product typically arrives packaged on a larger
scale and leaves packaged on a smaller scale. In other words, an important function of this
warehouse is to break down large chunks of product and redistribute it in smaller quantities. For
example, some skus may arrive from the vendor or manufac- turer in pallet quantities but be shipped out to customers in case quantities; other skus may arrive as cases but be shipped out as eaches; and some very fast-moving skus may arrive as pallets and be shipped out as eaches.
In such an environment the downstream warehouse operations are generally more labor-intensive.
This is still more true when product is handled as eaches. In general, the smaller the handling unit, the greater the handling cost. It can require much labor to move 10,000 boxes of paper clips if each box must be handled separately, as they may when, for example, stocking retail stores. Much less labor is required to handle those 10,000 boxes if they are packaged into cases of 48 boxes; and still less labor if those cases are stacked 24 to a pallet.
Even though warehouses can serve quite different ends, most share the same gen- eral pattern of material flow. Essentially, they receive bulk shipments, stage them for quick retrieval; then, in response to customer requests, retrieve and sort skus, and ship them out to customers.
The reorganization of product takes place through the following physical processes (Figure 3.1).
• Inbound processes
– Receiving
– Put-away
• Outbound processes
– Order-picking
– Checking, packing, shipping
Figure 3.1: Order-picking is the most labor-intensive activity in most warehouses. Travel can be reduced by careful putaway.
A general rule is that product should, as much as possible, flow continuously through this sequence of processes. Each time it is put down means that it must be picked up again sometime later, which is double-handling. When such double-handling is summed over all the tens-of-thousands of skus and hundreds-of-thousands of pieces and/or cases in a warehouse, the cost can be considerable.
Another rule is that product should be scanned at all key decision points to give “total visibility of assets”, which enables quick and accurate response to customer demand.
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3 仓库运营
仓库对货品进行重新组织和包装,通常以大包装入库,小包装出库。换句话说,仓库的一个重要功能是将大单元拆散,再以较小的单元和数量配送出去。例如,一些sku以成托形式从供应商或制造商送达,然后以按箱被运送给客户;或以箱入库,出货以件形式装运;当然,也有一些快销品的sku也会以成托在仓库进出。
因此,越是处于处理包装单元未端的仓库,越为劳动力密集型。 当作业单元为单件时,那么劳动力密集已经不可避免了。而且处理的单元越小,其成本也就越高。如果每个盒子都必须分开处理的话,那么移动10,000盒回形针就需要大量的人力,比如在零售商店里,它们就有可能需要被分开来处理。但如把这10000盒子包装成48箱的话,需要的人力就少很多了;再如果把这些箱子按每托24箱码到托盘上,人力需求就更少了。
尽管仓库可以服务于完全不同的终端,但大多数基本物流模式是相同的。基本上,他们大批量接收货品,按照方便存储方式入库存储;然后,按客户需求,提取和分拣sku,并将它们发运给客户。
货物按以下物流过程进行重组:
入库流程
收货
上架
出库流程
订单拣货
复核,打包,发货
图3.1:在大多数仓库中,拣货是劳动力最密集的活动。上架规划的好,可以有效缩短行走距离。
一个通用的规则是:货品应尽可能按照流程以先后顺序地顺畅地通过仓库。每一次它被放下,就意味着必须在以后的某个时候再把它拿起来,这就是双重处理了。如果对仓库中成千上万的sku和数十万的件/箱进行双重处理,成本会相当可观。
另一个规则是,货品应该在所有的关键点被扫描,以实现“资产的总体可见性”,从而能够快速和准确地响应客户的需求。
This guy is lazy,Introduction has not been set