Warehouse Management

Question 1

Warehouses

Answer 1

where raw materials or finished goods are stored before they are sent for production or sold to the consumer

Raw material storing; although undesirable, can’t really be avoided (incoming warehouse

Finished products before they reach the customers (outgoing warehouse)

Costs in warehouses:

Fixed: set up, equipment

Variable: HR

Try to minimise the costs
Minimum number of warehouses as possible
Locations are chosen so that other costs are minimised

If the raw material loses weight during production – a warehouse near the source of production

If not, can be anywhere – well, logically it should be near the market to cater to the spike in demands

Question 2

Models for Warehouse Location

Answer 2

Used when opening a series of warehouses

Often by companies when venturing into a new country

A time tested model, used historically by banks and post offices

How to decide on the order? Given:
The distance (or cost) for the movement of customers from one site to another
Demand at the sites
Importance of the markets

Question 3

Method

Answer 3

Multiply the demand and weight by the customer’s travelling cost
Pick the column with the least total cost
For this column (A) replace the elements in the other columns with what is in A if they are greater than the corresponding element in column A
Eliminate this column and repeat for the others
Calculate the new total and repeat until no more locations are left
Here the solution is A-D-C-B if the steps are repeated

Question 4

Transportation Cost

Answer 4

When we need to decide on which of the existing warehouses to serve the demand, given:
Demand and supply
Locations

Question 5

Warehouse Layout

Answer 5

What happens inside the warehouse?
How much space to rent in a warehouse?
Dependent on nature of products
For example refrigerators vs computer mother boards
Types of stacking
Keep additional space (for example 30%) for office space etc.
What should be the height of the warehouse?
Warehouse layout diagram

Question 6

Diagram

Answer 6

Space for staging or docking
Space for racking
Width of module: aisle + pallet width + clearance + pallet width
Aisle + clearance + 2 pallet width
Length of module
= width of the iron beam + clearance 1 + pallet 1 length + clearance 2 + pallet 2 length + clearance 3
= width of iron beam of the rack + 3 clearance + 2 pallet length
Height of module
= height of iron beam + height of empty pallet + permissible height of the cartons on the pallet + height clearance
= height of iron beam + height of empty pallet + hight of goods + clearance above pallet

Question 7

Warehouse Space Calculation

Answer 7

(number of loads recieved * hours per load)/length of shift
*(size of load * space/pallet)