2. The design of a large and modern warehouse is very complex and requires a range of skills and disciplines.  operations  construction  materials handling  information systems  personnel  finance  project management

3.  Define business requirements and design constraints.  Define and obtain data.  Formulate a planning base.  Define the operational principles.  Evaluate equipment types.  Prepare internal and external layouts.  Draw up high-level procedures and information system requirements.  Evaluate design flexibility.  Calculate equipment quantities.  Calculate staffing levels  Calculate capital and operating costs.  Evaluate the design against business requirements and design constraints.  Finalize the preferred design.

4.  warehouse roles  throughput levels and storage capacities  customer service levels  specified activities  government agencies  fire officer  insurance company  local authority

6.  product group  quantity throughput  value throughput  seasonality  inventory turn  characteristics  number of order lines

7.  order profile  order frequency  number of order lines for each SKU  time profile  unit load and packing requirements  service levels

8.  number of vehicles per day and by hour  types of vehicle  unit load types and profile  volume for dispatch route  own vehicles or third-party  cross-docking profiles

9.  basic operations to be undertaken  ancillary functions

10.  security facilities  truck parking and manoeuvring areas  vehicle wash and fuelling points

11.  location, access and ground conditions  drawing to show building dimensions, columns, gradients, etc.  drawing to show external area  services

12.  rent and rate  building maintenance and security  heat, light and power  wages rate and shift premiums  equipment costs, depreciation rules, maintenance costs

13.  size, condition, numbers

14. This requires data analysis and needs to be presented to the project team, Steering Group and external stakeholders as clearly as possible; for example, by means of summary tables, graphs, charts and drawings.

18.  Initial automation assessment.  Attribute assessment.  Decision trees.  Cost comparison.  Equipment choice.

21. This process will have a number of objectives such as:  throughput efficiency  building utilization  safety  environmental

22. Other layout considerations include:  building spans, column pitches, required clear operational, heights and floor flatness tolerances  dock area design for vehicle loading and unloading  the location

23. Other external layout considerations include:  roadway design;  parking areas;  gatehouses, fences, barriers and landscaping;  vehicle wash, fuelling and maintenance facilities;  fire assembly area.

24. The type of agility required may include the following facets:  volume  time  quantity  presentation  information

25. This agility may be provided by a combination of available warehouse resources;  land or building  equipment  staff  processes and systems

29. It is often useful to assemble these under the headings of:  building, including land, construction, local rates or taxes, services and building security and maintenance  equipment, including static and mobile equipment capital costs, and maintenance running costs  staffing, including management, operatives, clerical staff and maintenance staff  information systems, including hardware, soft ware and implementation costs.

31.  building: site search, building design, tendering and selection of the construction company, detailed design, and construction, as well as ancillary specialism's such as sprinklers and security;  materials handling: detailed design, tendering and supplier selection, manufacture, installation and commissioning;  information systems: specification, selection, development and testing;  associated areas: for example, transport

36.  percentage of orders dispatched on time;  percentage of orders fully satisfied;  accuracy of order fill;  stock availability in the warehouse;  order lead time;  returns and customer complaints.

37.  number of case picked per person hour;  number of order lines picked per person hour;  equipment uptime.

38.  cost per case throughput;  cost per pallet stored;  conformance to budget.

39.  percentage pallet storage capacity used;  number of hours per day equipment is used;  number of standard hour worked.

40.  percentage of locations with correct stock;  percentage of SKUs with correct stock;  stock-turn.

41.  average number of hours between arrival of goods on site and put away to storage location  average number of hours between customer order receipt and dispatch of goods.

42.  number of days without an accident;  number of days safety training;  adherence to safety audits and hazard monitoring.

43.  number of days skill training;  percentage of staff multi-skilled;  absenteeism and sickness rates.

44.  electricity and gas usage;  water recycling;  percentage of returned goods or packaging recycled.

45. These measures serve different purposes and therefore may be classified in different ways, for example:  leading and lagging indicators  single and joint indicators  external and internal indicators

46. It is particularly important to monitor the operational parameters that define the context in which the warehouse is operating. These operational parameters include:  throughput;  number of SKUs;  unit load characteristics;  product characteristics;  lines per order;  units per order line;  added value requirements.

47. The use of computer-based information technology is now the norm in most warehouses, and is essential for the management of large facilities. The WMS normally interfaces with the company’s main transaction system to access information such as purchase orders and to download customer orders. In turn, the WMS will feed back information such as goods received and dispatched.

50. WMS functionality covers all the activities of the warehouse, as shown in the examples below:  receiving;  put-away;  replenishment;  picking;  added value services;  packing;  cross-docking;  sortation;  dispatch;  management;  stock counting.

52. Bar codes are the most common form of capturing data by automation. A bar code comprises a number of vertical bars of varying thicknesses. Each combination of bars represents a letter or number. There are a number of ‘symbologies’ established by different organizations for varying purposes.

53. OCR labels can be read by both humans and text scanners. However, this technology tends to be less reliable than bar coding and data formats are limited. OCR technology is more common in document handling.

54. RFID is being applied increasingly in supply chain for the tracking of unit loads, for carton identification and for security and other purposes at item level. RFID is basically the identification of items by means of radio waves. There are normally four components of such a system:  a tag  an antenna  a reader  a host station

55. Error rates in automatic identification systems tend to be very low.