Usefulness and Constraints of Layout Design

Usefulness of layout design

1) An effective warehouse layout design can help to optimize the efficiency and space utilization.

With the 5 main areas of operations, goods can move in swiftly from the unloading area, into the main storage; picker can also pick goods from the picking area. Congestions are minimized and these help to increase the efficiency of the different tasks in the warehouse.

By storing goods with a plan to locate them neatly; more space can be utilized; either horizontally or vertically.

2) There would also be higher labor efficiency and lesser errors.

A layout plan would minimize the movement of the employees and the time used for moving can be used to do other operations or work; thus increasing labor efficiency.

A neatly planned warehouse would have lesser errors such as picking the wrong item or storing the wrong goods in wrong place.

3) Safety and security of a warehouse would most likely be enhanced through an effective layout because employees would know where the walking spaces are and no goods would be left lying around.




Constraints of layout design

Space Constraint
It is very important that when you plan the design layout of the warehouse, you need to think how to make it that the use of space is at the optimum level. It is because that by making the best use of space, you will be able to have a higher amount of inventory storage. Making the best use of space does not only mean the floor areas which is horizontally but also vertically. By maximising the use of space can also help to reduce the total cost of the warehouse therefore it important to take note of the usage of space when designing the warehouse layout.

Constraint of the 5 main areas
Beside making best use of the space, when we design the layout, we should also consider where are we going to locate the different areas of the warehouse. (Goods in, Main storage, order picking, marshalling, goods out) It is because by considering this factors, you will be able to minimize the movement and congestion in the warehouse and therefore, the rate of accident in the warehouse would also decrease. One example is the separation of the main storage and the order picking area.


Some questions asked by other groups:

Bernice's group
Q: U- flow is always preferred for cross-docking.Then May I know how cross-docking works with through flow?

A: Cross docking is preferred in a U flow because the total distance travelled is shorter compared to the through flow where every product needs to travel through the whole warehouse.

In a through flow layout, cross docking can be done by moving the product in the center of the warehouse; directly from the unloading area to the loading area in a straight line.

As you can see from the diagram of the through flow, moving in the center of the warehouse minimizes the total distance travelled compared to moving to the left or right of the warehouse.

Therefore, cross docking can also be done in a through flow layout but the total distance travelled would still be more than a U flow layout.

Jessica's group
Q: Can you give me more examples of how to use of space at the optimum level?

A: One example is to minimize the width and number of gangways or aisles.

Having a large number of aisles take up a lot of space that can be used to store inventories.

However, aisles is a necessary to have a safe warehouse movement, it cannot be completely removed, therefore, what we can do is to minimize them, and carefully positioning them to make the best use of space.

Careful positioning of pipes is also another example of how designing an effective layout can help to utilize the best space.

A warehouse with pipes obstructing the space where it can be used to store more inventory is not utilizing the space at its optimal level.

Another example could be by using racking system.

Using this system, you will be able to make use of the space between the ground and the ceiling of the warehouse. This would enable you to store more goods and also make the use of space at it optimum level.

Hope we answered your enquires =)