Exercises_warehousing_solution

Exercises - Warehousing Scenario 1: The company Ceramica is moving in a new warehouse. The owners, Gino and Marco, would like to have your help to determine which picking method would be more appropriate for them. They have given you the information contained in tables 1 and 2. Table 1: Number of ceramic boxes with the same code that were ordered in the same order Number of ceramic boxes Frequency 1 0 2 0 3 2 4 13 5 21 6 to 10 105 11 to 20 84 21 to 30 45 31 to 40 12 41 or more 13 Average 15,5 Minimum 3 Maximum 70 Table 2: Number of different types of ceramic that were ordered in the same order Number of different types of ceramic Frequency 1 148 2 97 3 36 4 11 5 3 6 to 10 0 11 to 20 0 21 to 30 0 31 to 40 0 41 or more 0 Average 1,7 Minimum 1 Maximum 5 1. Which picking method should be used in this case? © 2014, HEC Montréal, Département de la gestion des opérations et de la logistique Page 1

The mean number of lines per order (table 2) is 1.7. The mean number of units par line is 15.5. According to the table (provided in your notes), we are in the first column and second row, so we should use a batch picking method. Here the frequencies are indicating a similar conclusion than the averages. 2. Explain in your own words how Gino and Marco should proceed if they use the method you recommend. Batch picking aims to prepare many orders simultaneously. Moreover, the sorting of products for each order is made at the end of the picking run. We thus minimize the movements (travelling) made by the pickers since they pick all the products for many orders and then sort them at the shipping dock. © 2014, HEC Montréal, Département de la gestion des opérations et de la logistique Page 2 Number of units per line Number of lines per order

1. Which type of racking would you suggest for each of the family of products? Number of pallets per product Single deep Double deep Drive-in Push back Flow 0.25 -1 2 - 5 6 - 10 11 - 20 21 - 50 51 - 100 > 100 For family A, the mean of pallets per product is 10.6. If we look at the frequencies, we see that for this family of products, we keep around 6 to 10 pallets or 11 to 20 pallets per product. We could suggest installing double deep racking for this family of products. For family B, the mean of pallets per product is 5.1. If we look at the frequencies, we see that for this family of products, we keep around 0.25 to 1 pallet or 2 to 5 pallets per product. Thus, the mean here is not necessarily representative of the situation. We could suggest installing single deep racking. 2. If you had only one type of racking to suggest to Gino and Marco, which one would it be? Explain to them what are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of racking. If we had only one type of racking to install, I would suggest the single deep racking. Indeed, for many products, we don’t have a lot of pallets in inventory. This racking enables to have a selectivity of 100% which means that we can access any time all the products. Also, since Gino and Marco did not talk to you about any problem of space, the low density of this racking would not be a problem. Finally, this racking enables to respect the first-in first-out principle. © 2014, HEC Montréal, Département de la gestion des opérations et de la logistique Page 4 B A