Main points:
• Conveyors change the economics of travel: Storage locations close to the conveyor are, in terms of labor, close to shipping.
• Conveyors partition the warehouse into zones. The track restricts movement of workers and product because it is hard to cross; and so create problems of balancing work among zones. To alleviate this, conveyors are run up high whenever possible.
• Issues: How many products are conveyable? What is capacity, especially surge capacity, of conveyor?
• Guidelines for layout: Store conveyable product far from shipping because it can travel “for free”. Reserve locations that are physically close to shipping for non-conveyables because they will have to be carried (for example, fork lift).
read the whole passage
Collapse full text
