Facilities Layout
Case Assignment
Warehouses of the Future
Read the Required articles as specified in the Background Page.
Then answer the questions below in a 3-4 page paper:
- What are the major design issues that should be considered in building a warehouse and/or distribution center that will accommodate future trends in logistics?
- Discuss why it is important to consider the location of the warehouse network in the design of warehousing and distribution center facilities?
- Are the changes Kroger implemented in its grocery distribution system compatible with design layouts that attempt to optimize technological convergence, material flow, and automation? (Explain)
Submit your assignment for grading by the end of this module.
Assignment Expectations
Demonstrating an understanding of the roles of technology, location, and facility layout play in supporting an effective logistics management effort is the major expectation for the fourth module case study assignment. It is expected that the paper demonstrate critical thinking skills, depth of understanding of key concepts, and logic in evaluating, synthesizing, and integrating recent innovations in automation and information technology when applied to the optimal design and layout of facilities.
Module 4 – Background (CASE)
Facilities Layout
The following information will give you a good overview of the importance facility layout and design play in contemporary warehousing and distribution centers.
Use the following process to find and review the articles below in ProQuest:
Required Materials
Harrington, Lisa, (2007 May) Designing the Perfect Warehouse, Inboundlogistics.com, retreived May 4, 2012. NOTE this is a direct link to the article on the Internet.
Abstract:
Designing the perfect warehouse is an area where even angels can fear to tread. The devil is in managing myriad details, complicated by the fact that a design made in heaven is never the same for any two facilities-even within the same organization. While the process is exhaustively detail-laden, fortunately it can be broken down into two phases – location and design – and managed by a team hand-picked to address pertinent issues. Here’s a sinfully in-depth look.
Bob Trebilcock, (2008, Jan) The Multi-Modal Warehouse, Modern Materials Handling (Warehousing Management Edition) Boston: Vol. 63, Iss. 1, pg 40, 1 pgs.
Abstract:
Anyone who’s bought a cell phone lately understands the idea of convergence. Where we once made calls on a phone, listened to tunes on a portable disc player, snapped pictures with a camera, and surfed the Web on a laptop, we can now do it all on one device. Something similar is beginning to happen in the warehouse and DC. Bar codes no longer rule the day. End users now have a variety of technologies to choose from to execute the processes managed by a warehouse management system (WMS), including voice, RFID and camera-based imaging. For the most part, different devices and software interfaces are required to manage these technologies. But ADC technologies are beginning to converge onto one multi-modal device that can handle them all. Just as importantly, the next generation of WMS is being written to include core functionality to manage those technologies without middleware.
David Drickhamer, (2006, Feb) Changing Venue, Material Handling Management, Cleveland Vol. 61, Iss.2; pg 40, 3 pgs
Abstract:
For Denver-based ProLogis, a provider of distribution facilities and services that added 17 million-sq-ft of industrial space through the first nine months of last year, the average size of a new building six or seven years ago was around 150,000 sq ft. Today the average building size is 375,000 sq ft. The average clear height used to be around 28 ft. Now the average height ranges from 32 to 36 ft. Other new facility design trends include more parking for trailers, more dock doors, improved sprinkler systems, and better lighting and floors. As more manufacturing has moved overseas, companies are importing more products into ports on the east and west coasts. They need larger facilities to handle high volumes of product coming in by the container load. As the working height of facilities increases, flat floors become more important for rack stability and the accurate and safe operation of very-narrow-aisle configuration as well as for automated storage and retrieval systems. Market forces are expanding the four walls (and the ceiling) of new warehouses and distribution centers.
Chua, Sophia, (2007, Feb.) Warehousing: It’s All in the Design, Manufacturers Monthly, Sydney, pg. 60.
Abstract:
If companies don’t get these located properly from the start, they will have a less optimal warehouse (Andrew Newby).
Trebilcock, Bob (2009, May) Kroger Changes the Game, Modern Materials Handling (Warehousing Management Edition), Boston: Vol. 64, Iss. 5; pg 16.
Abstract:
For some leading grocers, those days are history. The same industry that led the way in the adoption of warehouse management and labor management systems, wireless bar code scanning and voice technology is now adopting automated materials handling in a big way. The Kroger Co is one of those industry leaders. About eight years ago, it began working with a systems integrator to create a new design to automate its grocery distribution centers. The end result was a system that can receive and putaway full pallets, then break them down and rebuild them into store-ready mixed pallets according to how they will be put away on the shelves in a store aisle. It all happens with almost no human intervention. In all, Kroger processes about 110,000 cases per day with a peak capacity of 160,000 cases in the first facility built with the new design in Arizona. The grocery industry, however, is incredibly competitive, operating on razor-thin margins. Any reductions in operating costs in warehousing, order fulfillment and transportation go right to the bottom line. For that reason, Kroger set out to re-engineer the way it distributes product to its stores, creating a distribution system for the 21st century.
Optional (Non-Required) Materials
While I am not requiring the following, I believe you will find them interesting and relevant to the case study and SLP assignments:
Anonymous, (2008, Mar. 24) Innovative Warehouse Design Concept Implemented by Wisconsin Generator Manufacturer, US Fed News Service, Including US State News, Washington
Abstract:
An innovative, alternative warehouse-design concept developed by a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleague at Auburn University has been implemented by a Wisconsin generator manufacturer. In its newly designed warehouse in Whitewater, Wis., Generac Power Systems built a non-traditional aisle and rack system based on concepts created by Russell Meller, professor of industrial engineering, and Kevin Gue, engineering professor at Auburn.’
Graham, D. D., (2003 September). Warehouse of the future. Aftermarket Business, Cleveland, Vol 113, Iss. 9, pg. 50
Abstract:
While lower priced RFID tags will significantly affect warehouse operation in the near future, [John Pulling] foresees a more phased introduction of RFID than some of the proponents of this technology. “The management of inbound and outbound inventory will be positively affected by the wider use of RFID because, with RFID tags, products identify themselves,” he says. “Not only will this make accounting for inventory much easier, it will substantially reduce operator error (in shipping and receiving)…
Cutler, Thomas R. (2007, Dec) Dynamic Warehousing, World Trade, Troy: Vol. 20, Iss. 12, pg. 63, 3pgs.
Abstract:
In today’s economy, distribution centers need to be more dynamic to meet the ever changing demands of the global economy. They must constantly re-invent themselves, whether it is simply expanding an existing footprint, adding new operational processes such as value added services, or finding better ways to fulfill orders quicker. The ability of a warehouse to be dynamic depends on the configurability and scalability of the warehouse control systems. Some solutions offer that the key to the optimization of material flow by warehouse automation is tracking key performance indicators such as the current and anticipated workloads at workstations in order to make key material routing decisions; inbound and outbound order tasks to make key material release decisions. Ultimately, finding methodologies and technology tools to implement powerful and accessible frameworks to reduce inventory levels, increase productivity, and process flow are most critical. A demand driven supply chain is best characterized by a cost-effective digital supply replenishment network.
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