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Enlarging the warehouse capacity by improving the layout and the storage policy

Tijink, K.E. (2022) Enlarging the warehouse capacity by improving the layout and the storage policy.

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Abstract:Motivation The companies Tribelt and De Spiraal faces the problem that the warehouse is too small for their inventory. The available pallet places are according to them too low for their inventory. The core problem is that the warehouse layout is outdated and currently there is no storage policy. SKUs are stored random because there is no policy. The transport boxes are a huge hinder in the warehouse. The transport boxes are placed in front of the pallet racks, which makes picking a pallet sometimes very inefficient. SKUs are also stored outside, which can decrease the quality of the SKUs. The company thinks the warehouse layout is outdated and the efficiency could be higher. The layout right now can be seen on the figure below. There is much space between the aisles and there are multiple blockages which makes the travel distance very long. Research question The research object of this research assignment is smooth product flow and visibility/findability, efficient storage and routing and improving the warehouse layout. The research question is formulated as followed: How can the capacity of the warehouse of Tribelt and De Spiraal be increased by improving the layout and the storage policy? To answer the research question, the current situation was first analyzed, by looking at the current layout and storage policy. The current situation showed that there is no storage policy. The current capacity is 1393 pallet places and space for transport boxes. The in- and outbound is fluctuating a lot in the warehouse. The Pareto-diagram showed that only 11 (Tribelt) and 28 (De Spiraal) per cent of the SKUs in the warehouse cause 80 per cent of the number of receipts. Methods The method where is made use of, is the ABC classification. A is designed for high turnover material, B for medium turnover material and C for the least turnover material. This means A are the fast movers and C are the slow movers. There has been made a distinction for this based on the number of receipts per year and these distinctions have to be used in calculating the travel distance. It is possible to apply small aisles when designing a layout, this requires a different kind of truck, but the utilization of the warehouse floor will be higher, which is necessary when creating more pallet places. The goal is to minimize the travel distance made by the employees in the warehouse based on the ABC classification. The travel distance is calculated by Excel files based on the designed layouts. The occupied pallet places in the warehouse are calculated with the mean occupied pallet places in percentages times the total of pallet places. The layout of the warehouse is determined by including various aspects from the literature in the layout. This consist of double deep racking, push back racking, mobile racking, and small aisles between the racks. The methods used, has a higher utilization of the warehouse floor. Results The designed layouts show a huge improved on the amount of pallet places which is increased. This is the highest for the layout with push back racking, which increases the pallet places with 80.6%. The layout based on the current situation increases the pallet places with 60.9%. The efficiency in the warehouse can be much higher by putting the fast movers on the shortest travel distance and the slow movers on the longest travel distance. It showed that the travel distance is significantly decreased compared to the current situation for most of the proposed layouts. For three out of the four layouts the travel distance decreased with at least 44.7%. The layout with mobile racks still shows a large travel distance compared to the other proposed layouts and the accessibility is low. The accessibility is currently 100%, this also counts for the layout with small aisles and the layout based on the current situation. The layout with push back racks has an accessibility of 99.1% due to the push back racks of 5 deep. The accessibility for the layouts is high because there are many SKUs in the warehouse that are double. This means that there are more are more pallets of standing in the warehouse. The utilization of the warehouse floor is for all the layouts higher because all layouts show an increase in the pallet places. The KPIs accessibility, travel distance and pallet places are scored for every layout and the highest weighted score of the layouts, is the layout with push back racks. Therefore, we recommend the layout with push back racks. The layout based on the current situation is also potential. The figure below shows the layout with the highest weighted score, the layout with push back racks on the vertical sides.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Clients:
Tribelt and De Spiraal, Haaksbergen, the Netherlands
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Industrial Engineering and Management BSc (56994)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/93337
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