igh throughout and quick inventory turns are the major goals of this fast-paced distribution center, which ships sports equipment to retail stores. Incoming product from an adjacent manufacturing operation is received on pallets. These are taken either to the pallet picking or replenishment area (approximately 85% of orders move in pallet quantities) or directly to the replenishment area that feeds a case picking operation, where mixed pallets are built. The facility maintains a separate picking and shipping area for a line of specialty sports equipment. Full pallets are staged at the shipping dock for delivery. True to its goal, the facility averages about 18 turns per year — thanks to a tightly managed operation designed for streamlined handling. A combination of floor storage, pallet and case flow rack, and single-deep storage racks are key to its success.

• Use of 8-deep pallet flow rack for pallet picking enables the facility to maintain strict FIFO stock rotation of a seasonal product

• The 8-deep pallet flow rack also provides extremely dense storage, consolidating the high-volume picking operation into a relatively small area

• Additional half-aisle of pallet flow rack (4 deep) is ideal for picking of SKUs that move in pallet-quantities but do not require the depth of inventory of fastermoving items

• Locating replenishment racks (4 pallets high) adjacent to active picking lanes cuts down on travel distances and times

• Judicious selection of storage/staging equipment and the layout results in a better ratio of storage space to aisle space

• Three-level case flow rack ensures FIFO rotation of product and presents a large number of pick faces in a small area

• Locating operations for a specialty sports equipment line within the same facility, saves costs through sharing of specific resources (labor, information systems, etc.)

• Should the balance of pallet and case picking volume shift, the case picking area can be mezzanined to increase capacity

Facility Layout

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