How can warehouse shelves improve warehouse management efficiency?

How can warehouse shelves improve warehouse management efficiency? When it comes to warehouse management, it is necessary to mention the relationship between logistics and warehousing. There is both a "flow" of physical goods and a "stillness" of physical goods between timely supply and demand. The stillness state refers to the storage of physical goods, and the stillness of physical goods is to better connect the two dynamic processes of supply and demand, which requires warehouse shelves.

Customers who have worked as self built warehouses will encounter two problems: one is inventory explosion, and the other is inefficiency. So how to solve the customer's problem? One of them is the improper selection of storage shelves. If not handled properly, it is easy to get twice the result with half the effort.

As a warehouse administrator, I would like to mention that storage shelves are not too unfamiliar, such as prefabricated shelves, rotating shelves, pallet shelves, mobile shelves, drawer shelves, shuttle truck shelves, high-rise shelves, attic shelves, gravity shelves, cabinet shelves, etc. They each have their own characteristics. For products with longer contract terms (such as 3-5 years) and more regular goods, it is recommended to use shelves for storage.

The difference between a shelf warehouse (where goods are stored on shelves) and a flat warehouse (where goods are stored directly on the ground) is that the shelf warehouse enhances the storage capacity per unit area and fully utilizes the warehouse space. In this era of land and money, the more goods are stored per unit area, the lower the cost allocated to each storage location.

Some friends may say that the storage cost per unit area cannot be simply compared. Indeed, with the installation of shelves, compared to direct storage on the ground, it is necessary to add high-level electric forklifts and even auxiliary storage facilities, such as shuttle trucks that need to be equipped on the shelves. Due to the length of the article, there will be no specific disassembly here.

My conclusion is that the cost-effectiveness of shelf warehouses is higher in the long run.

Next, I will talk about a case I encountered earlier. The pain points of customers are concentrated in two aspects: one is the explosion of positions, and the other is inefficiency.

Before going to the site, I had a brief understanding of the client's situation. This customer belongs to the fast-moving consumer goods industry, with very few categories (varieties). The daily production volume of each SKU is large, and the product turnover speed is very fast. The factory and warehouse are located in the same courtyard, which means that after the product is taken offline, it is directly handed over from the temporary storage area at the end of the line and stored in the factory warehouse.

After arriving at the scene, the uniform beam shaped shelves in front of me startled me and made me feel a bit at ease. After conducting a simple analysis of inventory data and order data for several time periods, my speculation was once again confirmed. The problems of warehouse explosion and low efficiency are all due to unreasonable shelf design.

Some friends may say that the storage cost per unit area cannot be simply compared. Indeed, with the installation of shelves, the cost will be significantly higher compared to direct storage on the ground, but the utilization rate of warehouse supply and demand flow will also increase. For example, adding high-level electric forklifts and even auxiliary storage facilities; Shuttle racks need to be equipped with shuttle cars, etc. Okay, without deviating from the topic, let's continue with how to consider what needs to be considered when installing storage shelves?

Installation location 2. Beam height 3. Beam number 4. Maximum unit load 5. Load placement and loading method 6. Component connection form

According to the key points, if there is a change in the storage shelf, which points should be noted?

a) Changes in storage shelves can cause safety carrying capacity, and the original supplier should be consulted for evaluation and operation.

b) During changes in storage shelves, they should be unloaded.

c) After all changes to the shelf structure are completed, the safety load signs that have undergone the changes should be replaced.

d) For storage shelves equipped with back support, when the position of the beams changes, the position of the support nodes should be changed, and the horizontal support between the beams should be repositioned.

e) Unless approved by the warehouse shelf designer, storage shelves should not be added or altered by welding or bolting.

Among all the shelf types mentioned earlier, the worry and effort saving solution is the crossbeam shelf, because this shelf type is applicable to almost all products and does not require any thinking at all, because a row can only hold one pallet of goods, and the utilization rate of the row is either 100% or 0. However, the entry type shelves and shuttle car shelves are slightly more complex, as a row can hold up to 4 or 5 trays of goods and up to 10 trays of goods. Therefore, when designing, it is necessary to consider the depth of the row, which is a knowledge. Unreasonable design may cause, for example, on the surface, there are many planned storage trays, but the actual storage is very small, which is a typical design with a large depth, The situation where the full load rate of the ranking is low.

For products produced by customers, the characteristic is that each SKU has a large batch size and a small number of batches. Therefore, it is very suitable to use shelves with large depth, such as drive in and shuttle type. Personally, I prefer shuttle type. So, next, let's briefly compare the crossbeam and shuttle shelves.

In terms of storage capacity, suppose there are two warehouses with 5000 square meters each. Warehouse A uses crossbeam shelves, while Warehouse B mostly uses shuttle truck shelves (with a depth of 5). Then, a small number of crossbeam shelves are configured. After the design is completed, observe the warehouse layout, and the intuitive feeling is that Warehouse A has significantly more forklift channels than Warehouse B, and Warehouse B has a higher shelf density. This also explains the problem of warehouse explosion. If shuttle shelves are used, the problem of warehouse explosion can be alleviated to a certain extent.

In terms of efficiency of forklift loading and unloading, assuming that 5 pallets of products with the same code and batch are to be taken from the crossbeam shelf warehouse and shuttle truck shelf warehouse, the forklift driver working in the crossbeam shelf warehouse must complete the pickup and unloading from 5 different positions (possibly in different areas) and transfer to the stocking area, while the forklift driver in the shuttle truck shelf warehouse may only need to pick up the goods in sequence from 1 position. For friends who don't quite understand, you can take out a piece of paper and simply draw it to feel the difference.

So, when considering the selection of shelves, do not be lazy. Analyze based on past storage data to find suitable shelf types, and never use crossbeam shelves to deal with it.