Optimizing Warehouse Space Use - How to Get More Resources?
Both in Production and outside the production area one of the most expensive resources is space. When we enter the Logistics area and we talk about warehouses and warehouse service spaces (access roads, loading / unloading ramps, parking and waiting areas) the space seems more and more important and more expensive. If in the production areas we have dedicated departments and functions that deal with spaces (layout in production, spagetti diagram, VSM) to optimize the movements and obtain a maximum productivity by eliminating losses, when we arrive in warehouses it seems that we have never heard of possibilities to optimize the use of space.
In the best cases we can find a map of the deposit, in general it is actually a map of the storage locations, confused with the deposit map. The warehouse map (made on a scale so that we can identify and measure problems) contains both storage spaces and access routes, unused spaces, spaces for activities other than storage activities (quality checking, safety spaces, spaces for hydrants, etc. .), spaces for picking, spaces for preparation of deliveries, technical spaces (for parking forklifts and pallet trucks, spaces for charging batteries, etc.).
From the warehouse map we can evaluate and measure some of the basic indicators of a warehouse: the degree of filling of the warehouse and the degree of use of the space in the warehouse. After many maps of the deposits made by me personally, I reached a painful financial conclusion: in a warehouse the degree of use of the space for storage activities does not exceed 70% - and this in happy cases! Imagine that you buy an apartment of 100 square meters, but you can only use maximum 70 square meters; the difference ... well, you paid for it but someone else uses it and they use the same toilet as you and you have to wait after co-renting in the morning to use the toilet ...
Optimizing the use of space in warehouses uses LEAN tools to identify and eliminate losses in the use of space (LEAN, 6S, VSM losses), as well as generating solutions to improve the use of spaces for the function for which they were initially created: warehouse activities.
We must also bear in mind that each function / department has a "disease", for example Production will always answer "we do not have enough people". Do you know what Logistics is? There is never enough space (only time left until the Logistics people manage to fill that space)!
Things are only getting better with changing people's mindsets!
In the best cases we can find a map of the deposit, in general it is actually a map of the storage locations, confused with the deposit map. The warehouse map (made on a scale so that we can identify and measure problems) contains both storage spaces and access routes, unused spaces, spaces for activities other than storage activities (quality checking, safety spaces, spaces for hydrants, etc. .), spaces for picking, spaces for preparation of deliveries, technical spaces (for parking forklifts and pallet trucks, spaces for charging batteries, etc.).
From the warehouse map we can evaluate and measure some of the basic indicators of a warehouse: the degree of filling of the warehouse and the degree of use of the space in the warehouse. After many maps of the deposits made by me personally, I reached a painful financial conclusion: in a warehouse the degree of use of the space for storage activities does not exceed 70% - and this in happy cases! Imagine that you buy an apartment of 100 square meters, but you can only use maximum 70 square meters; the difference ... well, you paid for it but someone else uses it and they use the same toilet as you and you have to wait after co-renting in the morning to use the toilet ...
Optimizing the use of space in warehouses uses LEAN tools to identify and eliminate losses in the use of space (LEAN, 6S, VSM losses), as well as generating solutions to improve the use of spaces for the function for which they were initially created: warehouse activities.
We must also bear in mind that each function / department has a "disease", for example Production will always answer "we do not have enough people". Do you know what Logistics is? There is never enough space (only time left until the Logistics people manage to fill that space)!
Things are only getting better with changing people's mindsets!
