Model for Warehouse Product Allocation and Design
Course: Material Handling Systems-ISEN 605
Student: Hasnain Millwala
UIN: 319002456 Journal Article Analyzed: Mathematical model for warehouse design and product allocation S. S. Heragu, L. Du, R. J. Mantel and P. C. Schuur International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 43, No. 2, 15 January 2005, 327–338
Article Summary:
This article primarily deals with two fundamental decisions involved in warehouse design 1. Allocating the warehouse space to the 3 typical functional areas within a warehouse- • Reserve-where products(SKU’s) are typically stored for a longer duration prior to shipping • Forward-where fast moving products are stored for a shorter duration and also activities like collating, processing and other value added activities may be carried out prior to shipping. • Cross-Dock-where products are taken in from the receiving dock and immediately transferred to the shipping dock 2. Allocating the products (SKU’s) to these functional areas within the warehouse.
The author argues that current practitioners make these decisions sequentially, however for an optimum design, these two criteria have to be analyzed together. Once the warehouse space has been distributed among the functional areas, the allocation of products gets limited to the constraints set by the previous design problem. However, if carried out in tandem, the result will be lower costs and optimum allocation considering the warehouse space and product flow.
The focus of the paper is on development of a mathematical model to solve the problem and a heuristic which is typically used for a larger number of SKU’s where a mathematical model will not be able to handle vast amounts of data.
The author starts by describing the literature review for the paper and also a general overview of the functional areas within a warehouse and the decision making procedure currently
Student: Hasnain Millwala
UIN: 319002456 Journal Article Analyzed: Mathematical model for warehouse design and product allocation S. S. Heragu, L. Du, R. J. Mantel and P. C. Schuur International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 43, No. 2, 15 January 2005, 327–338
Article Summary:
This article primarily deals with two fundamental decisions involved in warehouse design 1. Allocating the warehouse space to the 3 typical functional areas within a warehouse- • Reserve-where products(SKU’s) are typically stored for a longer duration prior to shipping • Forward-where fast moving products are stored for a shorter duration and also activities like collating, processing and other value added activities may be carried out prior to shipping. • Cross-Dock-where products are taken in from the receiving dock and immediately transferred to the shipping dock 2. Allocating the products (SKU’s) to these functional areas within the warehouse.
The author argues that current practitioners make these decisions sequentially, however for an optimum design, these two criteria have to be analyzed together. Once the warehouse space has been distributed among the functional areas, the allocation of products gets limited to the constraints set by the previous design problem. However, if carried out in tandem, the result will be lower costs and optimum allocation considering the warehouse space and product flow.
The focus of the paper is on development of a mathematical model to solve the problem and a heuristic which is typically used for a larger number of SKU’s where a mathematical model will not be able to handle vast amounts of data.
The author starts by describing the literature review for the paper and also a general overview of the functional areas within a warehouse and the decision making procedure currently