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Product Slotting is defined as the intelligent location of product in a warehouse or distribution center for the purpose of optimizing material handling efficiency. Benefits from good product slotting include:
Improved Picking Productivity: Our studies show that travel time can often account for up to 60% of a picker’s daily activity. A good product slotting strategy can reduce travel time thereby reducing picking labor by up to 20%.
Efficient Replenishment: By sizing the pick face location based upon a standard unit of measure (case, pallet) for the product in question you can significantly reduce the labor required to replenish the location.
Work Balancing: By balancing activity across multiple pick zones you reduce congestion in the zones, improve material flow and reduce the total response time for a given order or batch of orders.
Efficient Load Building: To minimize product damage, heavy product is located at the beginning of the pick path ahead of crushable product. Product may also be located based on case size to facilitate pallet building.
Improved Accuracy: Similar products are separated to minimize the opportunity for picking errors.
Improved Ergonomics: High velocity products are placed in a “golden zone” to reduce bending and reaching activity. Heavy or oversized items are placed on lower levels in the pick zone or placed in a separate zone where material handling equipment can be utilized.
Family Grouping: By storing and picking product by family group you may be able reduce downstream sorting and consolidation activity. This is particularly important in a retail environment to facilitate efficient restocking at the stores.
Operations managers typically do a good job of slotting their warehouse initially. Over time, however, customer demand changes, products come and go, and before long labor costs are way up, order fulfillment rates are way down and response times are impacting customer service.
It is important to continually re-slot the warehouse to keep it operating at maximum efficiency. Some of our clients re-slot their highest movers (typically also their most profitable products) on a daily basis.
CEI Logistics uses specialized softtools and experience to perform detailed slotting analysis for our clients. Using an array of algorithms, we analyze product demand, lead time, volumetrics, special handling characteristics, and cost information to calculate the most cost efficient bin size and location for a given product based on the required service level within the physical space available.
By using advanced methodology, we can also recommend the most cost effective material flow path and identify optimal inventory levels and reorder points for each product. Should you deliver product JIT from dock to the forward pick zone or point of use with no reserve inventory? Or should you maintain the traditional dock to reserve storage to pick zone strategy? Does kitting make sense? How much inventory should you carry to meet your service level requirements?
We provide storage recommendations complete with detailed cost data. In addition, CEI Logistics makes it easy to run multiple "what-if" scenarios to determine the effect of changing key variables like product demand.
We can examine your current product slotting situation, analyze it, and offer meaningful solutions. Call us at 800-441-1162, or e-mail 24hours@ceilogistics.com for more information.
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