Warehouse Management  Process Improvements for a

Paper Products and Sanitary Supply Distributor

REM Associates of Princeton, Inc. recently completed an operations diagnostic for a large paper and sanitary supply company in the northeast focusing on warehouse operations, facility characteristics, processes, and procedures.  The objectives were to:

• Determining  the utilization of effective business practices
• Determining the optimal movement of product through the facilities
• Developing best practices to be utilized by the current and expanded warehouse facility

Results of this work:

This work resulted in:

• Developed a facility layout that maximized efficiency and utilization by matching customer expectations with effective warehouse policies and procedures
• Developed cost savings and expenditures to construct the new facility with product movement and storage characteristics that would maximize efficiency
• Developed product storage slotting procedures that maximized space utilization while using best practices in warehouse slotting to efficiently manage the warehouse

Existing Situation:

Prior to the implementation of our process improvement recommendations:

• Product not stored according to movement or cube utilization
• Product picked from highest tier in racks using costly vertical movement
• Poor housekeeping in warehouse
• General layout of new facility needed adjustment based on product type and storage utilization
• Warehouse was extremely inefficient due to the age and restrictions of the construction
• Productivity measures were almost non-existent

Measures for success:

Following an in-depth analysis, the following process improvements were implemented:

• Developed a new layout for operations according to product movement and storage characteristics
• Productivity measured implemented and utilized by management
• Unique warehouse areas optimized for efficient material flow
• Warehouse slotted by product movement for efficient product flow
• Route picking report generated for pickers to be able to wave pick appropriate items

If your current environment in any way resembles the “Existing Situation”, contact REM Associates to develop an action plan for process improvements directed at achieving similar results.