Facilitator's Question:

Under what circumstances the carton flow rack is a preferred choice as compared to other carton storage system?

Since movement comprises a major part of the carton pickers’ effort, it shows the importance in minimizing factors that contribute to order picker’s job. For instance, many pharmaceutical supply houses use flow racks because the front picking face permits a large number of items to be available to the order picker, thus decreases the walking distances and time significantly.

The carton flow racks is said to be most suitable for products when the frequency of issuing the items is relatively high. The several advantages over the other carton storage system are namely:

• Followed by reducing the distances travelled and time incurred, carton flow racks eliminate the aisles required for standard carton storage system
• They can be restocked at the same time while picking of orders is performed on the front of the picking face as replenishment could be done from the back
• First- In- First- Out (FIFO) control of inventory is assured
• Employees do not have to be psychologically and physically prepared for the working heights as the flow racks are easily reachable to the pickers. Unlike the carton storage system where high stacking of products are concerned, material handling equipment is incorporated to rise pickers to the respective locations in the racks
• The number of line items for the front, picking can be dramatically higher than for carton storage system
• Makes full use of floor space with restocking and picking done separately. This will cover up the disadvantage of the lack in height
• Minimum supervision needed on the workers
• Minimize human errors
• Level of inventory easily visible to workers
• Easy installations with add-ons to allow for customization
• Racks built in workstations
• Pick conveyor - mounted onto the racks can act as a pick or take-away
• Wheels added to increase mobility of racks

However, there maybe restrictions to the carton flow rack compared to the normal carton rackings. For example, the height restriction of the rackings. Carton flow rack may be only able to hold up to a certain height limit thus cartons that are of bigger size may not be able to be fit into the racks. Cartons flow racks may also be suitable for items that are picked in EACH quantity(EA). This is because it could hold a high number of SKUs and may not need to be replenished often.

Overall, carton flow racks would be a good choice as it could hold a high number of different SKUs and could allow maximum utilization of the warehouse. However, there are some restrictions of the racking that are to be considered. Moreover, the types of products, the characteristics of the products and how the products are picked should also be looked into.

The above was posted by the LIM KAI SIANG, LIM RUI XIANG, LIM SIEW KIANG, NG SIYUN HEIDI

Mezzanine Flooring

A mezzanine floor is essentially a raised platform that is supported by steel columns and is totally independent of the host building. It allows you to create additional floorspace from wasted air space above your existing work and storage areas and can be used to create extra office, storage, production, or even retail space. This may double, or even triple, the amount of space available.

Thus this will be able to have more shelvings to put the SKU in place. Basically Mezzanine Flooring maximised the height usage of the warehouse and thus optimizing the cubic area of it. It is a good alternative to store the items with the help of Mezzanine Flooring if the warehouse's height is rather high and by doing this, it will create more space to store other bulky items and this in turns helps to generate more profit and cut down costing in the long run. However, the drawback of this is that the startup cost of the infrastructure is rather high.

Here are some advantages of the Mezzanine Flooring:

• Cost-efficient increased space
• Fully demountable, so they can be relocated at a later date
• Increased potential storage space
• Avoids relocation costs by making use of available space
• Flexible design option, can be used for many purposes
• Excellent fire protection available
• Lightweight, economic steel structure
• Bespoke design to meet precise customer requirements
• Seamless integration within existing environment
• Fast-track construction, with minimum disruption
• High quality, powder coated ancillaries in a wide choice of colours

Though Mezzanine Flooring helps to create more space for the SKU, however, in order to optimize the efficiency of it, Barcoding technology and using of "U" flow and "through" flow for the layout arrangement of it is recommended to be implemented in it.

Mezzanine floors can also be constructed within racking or shelving systems to create a double decked storage area.

Source: http://sg.images.search.yahoo.com/

The above was posted by KAI SIANG

Partitioning

Partitioning means something that divides or separates, as a wall dividing one room or cubicle from another and this is essential in the warehouse as there are several categories of products and could not be mixed together due to the nature of it.

There are several types of partitioning for a warehouse:

Broadsword

Broadsword is a heavy duty, economic industrial single skin steel partition which is ideal for secure storage and protective screening in the harshest industrial environments. Its angle frame gives the system flexibility and it can be dismantled and relocated quickly and easily for minimum disruption.

Sabre

Sabre is a medium duty single skin partitioning ideal for use in factory, warehouse and production office areas. In a multi-tiered form, it is effective for dividing up factories or warehouses to provide security, dust proofing and/or heat control. It is easily cut to fit around obstructions that frequently occur at high levels. Other applications include perimeter guarding to automated machinery, robots, conveyors and other manufacturing processes.

Excalibur

Excalibur is a high quality, double skin steel partition which is flush both sides and ideal for creating offices and clean rooms in production areas or warehouses. Panels are of a monobloc construction with two steel skins separated by an inert mineral wool insulating infill.It offers hidden cable management and double glazing that is available with blinds. Excalibur is also offered complete with a full range of proprietary suspended ceilings with tiles that cover the full spectrum of textures and styles. The system is also available in a fire rated version.

Scimitar

Scimitar is a mesh partitioning system which is fast and simple to install, fully relocatable and demountable. Scimitar mesh panels enable stored/protected items to be viewed and is ideal for bonded areas, hazardous goods, and high value goods storage. Scimitar is also suitable for use outdoors and cold room/refrigerated storage and all indoor applications.

Anti-Collapse Mesh Screen

Anti-Collapse Mesh screen system represents a simple preventative measure which has helped avoid many accidents in the handling of pallets. The mesh wire is mounted on sturdy brackets designed to fit racking of almost any design. The product can be adapted to suit a wide variety of situations. The mesh is all welded.

Source: http://sg.images.search.yahoo.com/

The above posted by KAI SIANG

Location Address plays an IMPORTANT Role in Storage Systems

The location address system is a systemic process of identifying, determining and naming all racks/ shelves. Existence of a consistent and unambiguous identification for both retail and medium warehouses can facilitate ease of locating products in picking, replenishment and counting stocks.

In addition, it is important to store the heavy items that have to be lifted by material handling equipment such as pallet truck. To emphasize ergonomics, fast- moving products should be stored between the belt and shoulder height level. Hence workers can pick with minimal stretching and bending.

A combination of alphabets and numeric markings helps to identify individual location address (e.g. A- 018-100) that holds each product. The idea of having a product code assigned to a location (a slot in the racks), that segregate storedc products. During picking, workers' effort may be eliminated when sorting of the different products at a location is no longer necessary. Distributors have to be aware that the numbers of digits/alphabets should cater for future expansion- in order to have a standardized and unique (non- repetitive) identification.

Below are 2 examples for naming the location:


The diagram below shows the 2 sides to an aisle (if any). Besides running the digits in consecutive order, even or odd can be used to name the either side of the racks/ shelves.

Example 1




Example 2




Example 3

The above was posted by HEIDI

Zoning of Storage Area

After classifiying products into fast, moderate and slow moving, storage area is divided into three major zones: A item zone, B item zone and C item zone. In addition, storing products that often appears on the same customer orders near one another can minimize movement in warehouses.

A Item Zone

• Also known as “golden zone” where it is near the primary aisles, packaging area and entrances and exit
• Recommended for storing fast moving inventories
• Wider aisles width to allow more frequent picking by workers at the zone

B Item Zone

• Cater to moderate-moving inventories
• Narrower aisles width

C Item Zone

• Stores slow-moving or non- planned products
• Usually located away from primary aisles or on the high/low racks or shelves

The positioning of the A, B and C zones at the storage area should be in accordance to the flow of the products. This aims to minimize movement, backtracking and cross-traffic (where flow crosses). The red line below indicates the flow of products.

'U' Flow

'Through' Flow

The above was posted by HEIDI

Gravity Flow Racks

Gravity flow racks are rackings that have rollers and are built at an angle in order for the cartons to roll down to ease the picking. Items are replenished from the rear and picked from the front. This will help increase productivity and it could be used for small items/cartons and even to pallets. Moreover, this could also help ensure first-in-first-out inventory management system is being carried out. This could be built on the ground level or on the mezzanine floorings. This will creates more locations for storage or even picking. Below are some pictures of a gravity flow racks.

Source: http://www.rackandshelf.com/FlowRack.aspx

The above was posted by SIEW KIANG

Non- Palletized Storage System (Odd Size Storage)

Basically, the types of rackings to be used in the warehouse will depends on the products that the company is storing. Below are the few types of rackings for different types of products.

Cantilever Racks

Cantilever rackings are unlike other conventional rackings, where there are vertical obstructions in the racks that separate the rackings into different sections. For cantilever rackings, it gives you a frontal access to the products and the main advantage is that it allows you to store products of various lengths, size or shapes. For example, steel bars, lumbers, etc are suitables to be stored using the cantilever racks. Below are the picture of a cantilever rack.

Stanchion Racks

Stanchion racks are another choice of rackings that allows you to store bars or tubes. It does not requires any special fittings, thus you could fix it up for storage anytime you want to - instantly. It could be joined to the desired length required and the individual racks could be stacked on top of one another. However, the disadvantage is that it would take up some space when it is not in use. Below is a picture of how a stanchion rack looks like.

Above info are taken from http://www.cantileverracking.biz/.

The above posted by SIEW KIANG