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HONORABLE
MENTION
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Student
Design Team
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A
space-saving design and reliance on proven materials handling equipment
and techniques deliver a winning facility
THE
TEAM
Rick
Bornhorst
Mohamed Elhag
Brad Hollingsworth
Christina Snyder
Student advisor:
Dr. Dale T. Masel
THE
DETAILS
- U-shaped
flow of material is maintained with few exceptions throughout
the facility, minimizing handling and length of travel path
- Flow rack
is sized to accommodate depth of inventory required for a particular
SKU, providing good access to inventory
- Pallet
racks are arranged in a U-shaped configuration to minimize travel
distance and maximize picks
- Reserve
storage replenishment and putaway occurs on the outside of the
pallet flow rack to avoid any interruption to picking
- Dedicating
one lane to partial pallets awaiting completion frees up floorspace
- An additional
bay and a half is reserved for expansion of the forward pick area
to accommodate any increase in volume
- A WMS
maintains tight control over inventory and material flow throughout
the facility
he
Ohio University team came up with a successful design by focusing
on the old 80/20 rule. “A small percentage of the SKUs accounted
for approximately 75% of the order picking,” explains Student Brad
Hollingsworth. “By utilizing a forward/reserve system for storage
and picking, we were able to consolidate those more popular SKUs
into a small cubic area. This allowed for a higher throughput rate
for filling orders, without the need for a high degree of automation.”
The
Material Flow
Cartons are unloaded
using skatewheel conveyors and palletized. Pallets are transported
to reserve storage, where they are assigned a storage location in
either single or double deep pallet rack, depending on SKU activity
level. The forward pick area consists of pallet flow rack for high-activity
inventory—the 219 SKUs that make up 76.4% of the volume. Pickers
palletize as they go. Internet orders and returns (estimated to
make up only a small fraction of the business) are segregated in
a parallel operation.
THE
FACILITY STATS
Facility size (sq
ft): 115,000
Capital investment cost:
Approximately $384K plus
WMS
Annual facility operating cost:
$1.2M
Number of employees:
31
Equipment employed:
Skatewheel conveyor, pallet rack, flow
rack, storage shelving, industrial trucks, WMS
Noteworthy features:
A focus on simplicity, proven handling
techniques |
FACILITY
LAYOUT
|
Ohio
University 
