Warehouse Layout Design for Electronic Equipment
To design a warehouse, you are required first to develop a warehouse layout. Designing a warehouse layout may seem simple, but it is a difficult act to figure it out.
Warehouse designing needs the utilization of space by the designer, where different factors limit the usage of the space available (Interlake, 2017). When designing the internal and external layout of a warehouse, certain factors should be considered, which affect the assigned space, the extension of existing amenities, how the new warehouse will be installed, and the reorganizing of the current operating system.
Irrespective of the circumstances faced during the warehouse layout, the layout should cover the following needs:
- Maximum usage of the space available
- The minimum cost incurred during handling of the goods
- Accessibility to the store
- The high rotational ratio should be observed
- The layout should provide flexibility in the positioning of the products
- The layout should control the number of goods to be stored.
To achieve the above needs, the design of the warehouse should be presented to inform of a plan (Interlake, 2017). After creating the layout, it should contain good storage as mentioned above with minimal congestion, the layout should allow maintenance activities, and establishment of the resources required to establish a great flow of work, the layout should also ensure reduced runtime errors.
For perfect layout design, the following must be perfectly designed:
- the reception area
- loading and unloading places
- the store coverage
- picking area
- and the dispatch area
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Loading and Unloading Areas
We decided to incorporate the loading and unloading inside the warehouse, so as goods to be collected and offloaded without the help of a carrier. Wed decided to design the loading zone inside the warehouse so as increase the speed in handling of the goods because our warehouse will be dealing with electronic equipment. In our warehouse, we make the Trucks and loading vans connected into the warehouse through the docks. We decided to use the flush docks, which allow the trucks and the loading vans to move right up to the warehouse wall. To avoid interfering with activities going on inside the warehouse, our access doors must have a hermetically sealed system. We chose to use a seal made of dock shelter.
The points with metallic seal contain an automatic system that operates the flat barrier that is fixable. The access point opens up automatically when the truck o the van backs up to the warehouse and closes down when the vehicle has completed the task required. When the access point is automatically operated, then the internal environment of the warehouse is preserved. To the metal seal, the doors contains inflatable shelters contain a tunnel that encircles the truck after it has connected to the entrance to minimize the interference with the internal environment.
We create the loading zone, by making the floor of the warehouse high above the driveway of the trucks and loading vans. Creating high floors ensures the Loading and unloading zones are designed according to how the trucks are driven into the pit. We design a warehouse that the trucks that will be used belong to the company operating the warehouse, we have to make sure that the height of the trailer is the same in all cases, with no further considerations required.
One of the reasons we want to use adjustable dock in our warehouse design is because of the suspension in the trucks, which, due to different loads, can lead to a varying height of the truck. The difference in the trailer heights cannot be avoided. To deal with the height differences, we prefer using mechanical machines. Mechanical machines are based on the walkway, which is fitted through a manual way between the truck and the dock. Such elements are used so that forklift and other devices used to load and offload the truck can enter and exit the vehicle with ease.
Reception Area
Our group decided that the reception area will have an independent location from the rest of the warehouse, to ensure good verification of the goods received, and make sure they are of high quality.
Ensuring the quality of the goods delivered matches the quality of the goods ordered, the next phase we locate a strategic position inside the warehouse of eceiving the goods in the warehouse (Rupasighe, 2018). We make the reception area large enough, considering the impact of accurate checking and great positioning can have on the future of the warehouse. Currently, most of the goods that come to warehouses contain barcodes that are easily scanned (Janette, 2019). We want to ensure when the computer identifies the type of goods, it automatically allocates the correct position of the goods. The labels of the goods are also readable and can be read effectively by the forklift operator to allow the efficient location of the items.
Storage Area
The storage area is specifically used for the storage of the goods. We decided to make a large storage area since our warehouse design will be made for storing electronic equipment, and we need a large space for that.. The goods will be stored on racking units, or they will be stored on the ground but stacked or placed on a block (Interlake, 2017). We decide to use this kind of storage because electronic machines are fragile and they need to be stored with a lot of care. Pallets will also be used as a support system for the goods.
Order Picking Areas
Since the picking area is not necessarily required in the warehouse, only when the outgoing goods need a configuration that is different from the one that they entered with, or if any modification is required (Interlake, 2017). We decide to make order picking areas between the storage area and the dispatch area for easy accessibility of the goods.
Dispatch Area
The dispatch area is used for the packaging of orders. Dispatch area will be necessary since it can be used for goods that are being prepared to be delivered or packed in distribution trucks. The dispatch will be situated in a specific place to increase the speed of movement within the warehouse (Interlake, 2017). Since we decided to make the dispatch and reception are areas close to one another, a small loading and offloading area can be created.
Service Area
We want to make a great service area, which will be designed for support staff, such as the management offices, bathrooms, and changing rooms (Interlake, 2017). The service area will be isolated from the dispatch and reception or built-in between the two workplaces to provide great operations in the department. We will also design changing rooms to be located at any place in the warehouse; we will locate the changing rooms close to the management offices (Interlake, 2017). We will also design a space that will be for the recharging of batteries and other handling devices should be located in the furthest corner of the warehouse due to health factors, and will be completely sealed to avoid incident involving the operations in this area.
References
Interlake Mekalux, (2017), Warehouse Layout Design. Retrieved from: https://www.interlakemecalux.com/warehouse-manual/warehouse-design/warehouse- layout
Janette Novak, (2019), Planning Your Warehouse Layout. Retrieved from: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/warehouse-layout/
Rupasighe, T., & Dissanayake, S. (2018, December). An integrated warehouse design and optimization modelling approach to enhance supply chain performance. In 2018 International Conference on Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
Zakirah, T., Emeraldi, R., Handi, O. M., Danil, D., & Kasih, T. P. (2018, December). Warehouse layout and workflow designing at PT. PMS using systematic layout planning method. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 195, No. 1, p. 012026). IOP Publishing.