Through Flow

‘Through’ flow happens when separate loading bay facilities for outbound and shipping are provided, often at opposite ends of a warehouse.

It is better to adopt a 'through' flow when a warehouse is connected to a production plant, or when there is confusion between goods in and goods out, or when the goods inwards and dispatch vehicles are different (e.g. platform height, nature of unit load)

Advantages
· It does not cause any confusion
- Workers know where is the loading/unloading bay
- Workers will not be confused as where the goods should head

Disadvantages
· Necessitates all goods travelling at full length of the building
· Environmentally less easy to control
· Less flexible in the event of future expansion and operationally

'U' Flow

‘U’ flow occurs when the goods receipt and dispatch functions are located at the same end of a warehouse building. It enables popularity storage systems to be used to minimize movement by locating fast-moving product lines close to the loading bays.

Advantages
· Better utilization of dock space· Better utilization of handling equipment
· Lesser total area required· More flexibility
· Better control of security and of environment

Disadvantages
· Causes confusion
- Workers might get confused as where to move the goods to
- Workers might get the goods to the wrong bay (loading or unloading)
. This will cause decrease in productivity

External layout design

Other than planning and designing for internal layout design, the external part of the layout is also equally important.

-Size and configuration of the site (to accommodate vehicles and facilities)

-Site access (adequate for different types of vehicles and volume of vehicles)

-Local authority plans (any plans that could affect proposed warehouse by government?)

-Site details (the drainage system and ground characteristics)

-Financial considerations (rates of rental/other overhead cost/able to apply loans?)

-Legislation and local regulations (public holidays/what can do, what cannot do)

-Building factors (is there any existing buildings? can be use as warehouse?)

Usefulness

· It is to ensure a smooth flow of goods and people in the warehouse. By having a smooth flow, there will be minimal congestion and it will increase productivity. There will also not be any delay in the production and this will either maintain or increase customers’ satisfaction.

· A well planned layout in the warehouse can ensure safety and security of both goods and people in the warehouse. With a good layout design; goods, equipment and people will have their own ‘path’, this will ensure no bumping into each another during operation. This will lessen the risk of goods falling and hitting the workers in the warehouse.

· It will make work easier for the workers to access to goods in the warehouse with a good layout design. Usually in a warehouse, different types of goods are placed at different locations. By having a good layout, workers will have ease of access to the goods and the accuracy of goods location, inventory level and identification.

Constraints

· Planning a layout for a warehouse is like a one-time thing. It is not flexible and can be changed to adapt to the different types of goods the warehouse stores. There is no changing of layout design from time to time as it is a ‘fixed’ project. Minimal alterations might be possible, but for example; changing the main storage area to the marshalling is nearly impossible. Not only you need to consider for the internal design plan, the external design plan must also be put into considerations.

· Planning must be very accurate; otherwise it might sabotage the entire warehouse effectiveness and efficiency. For example; if the warehouse needs to use conveyor belts, the planning of where to install the conveyor belts are very important as once the conveyor belts are installed, there cannot be any changed.

Questions

1: So why do you need to plan for the external layout to achieve effective warehousing?

Answer: To achieve effective warehousing, it is necessary to combine and plan carefully for both internal and external layout. Let us give you an example on site access; the internal layout is smooth, but the external layout are having problems like, the height of the shelter is too low and the trucks will hit it if it enters. Therefore, workers need to move the goods manually to the trucks and it will decrease productivity, takes up more time.

Thank you Wenkai for your question!

2: When to use 'through' flow and when to use 'U' flow?

Answer: Use 'U' flow when the loading/unloading bays are adjacent to each other. It ultilise more of the warehouse space. Use 'through' flow when the loading/unloading bay are opposite of each other. It will cause lesser confusion and the workers will know where the goods should head without making any mistakes.

Thank you Joanne for your question!

Ended my post @ 8:31 PM

JASHAWN REFLECTION



Hello, i want to post about the trip to the ALB. I am very sad to say that i missed the trip. I was told that the warehouse is very big. it is about the height of 20m high, which is about 10 storeys tall. It actually fully utilized the cubic capacity. The warehouse uses the through flow method. The storage system that the ALB use are Bin ASRS for the small items, Pellets ASRS and APIR.



The vertical carousel systems are found in the medical warehouse, which has 74 layers, which consists of 5,578 tote bins, where each bin is a location for small light load items. The vertical carousel is linked to the warehouse management information system (WMS). As for medical goods, it uses this storagee system for order picking. It is full computerised system. This place is also air conditioned so that the goods wont get contaminated so easily.

The powered Mobile Racking and Shelving system was found in the storage area on the ground level. It optimises storage space for fast moving items by having very narrow vertical aisles.

By missing this trip, i lose out alot to the rest of my classmates. Therefore when writing this report, i felt regretful. i hope i will get the chance the visit it one day.

Ended my post @ 8:26 AM

Gerald’s reflection on the trip to ALB

Hi, first I want to say that I regret not going to the trip to the Army Logistic Base(ALB). So i find out more from my friend. It’s a top class logistic operation. When reach there, there was a staff who explained the the important features of the ALB. ALB had a through-flow layout. The loading and unloading bay is at opposite side. It increase the movement speed within the place. The place is about 20metres high, fully utilizing their cubic capacity. Cost is very important to a warehouse, therefore being able to utilize the space actually helps to reduce cost.

They use the more advanced storage systems like pallet ASRS, vertical carousel system, mobile racking and Bin ASRS. With these systems, I believe the operations will be carried out smoothly. Being fully computerized, locations of the goods can be checked in the computer for easier order picking.

A staff showed how they do order picking for medical goods using the vertical carousel system and the system is about 10m high. The place where medical goods are kept are also air conditioned. This prevent any goods from turning bad and of course the staff working there will be more comfortable.

The trip was really an eye opener. We were able to experience real life operations which will definitely be useful for us when we join the industry in future and i regret not being able to make it. I really hope the school can have another similar trip to other big logistic companies!

Ended my post @ 3:16 AM

KangCheng's ALB reflection

The field trip to Army Logistic Base (ALB) is very useful for us students studying Logistic, it allows us to have a basic understanding and knowledge about how a warehouse is like. At ALB, it uses a through-flow warehouse floor layout design as its loading and unloading bay is opposite of each other. It is an eye-opener for us as they are using high technology equipments to do the pick-and-pack, store-and-retrieve of goods (examples are pallet ASRS, vertical carousel system, mobile racking and Bin ASRS).

ALB fully utilise their cubic capacity, their storage height are 18-20metres tall. Storage cubic capacity is one of the costs of the warehouse, by fully utilising it gives them more storage space to accept more orders, which will help to increase their profit.

In ALB, we saw they keep their medical goods in a cooler environment to prevent contamination and product deterioration. We saw a demonstration made by the staff in ALB, showing us the order-picking of medical goods through the vertical carousel system.

From what I observe, the layout of the warehouse is neatly and orderly plan to provide a smooth flow for the goods to come in and out. It is also a great chance for us to see some of the actual warehouse operation. This will prepare us for our SIP in 3.1 and we will roughly know what to expect if we are allocated to the warehousing department.

Ended my post @ 11:05 PM

Jingwen ALB reflection

The height of the ALB building is very tall, about 10 storey high. It also has a very large base area, about 12 football fields! That is totally amazing! When we reach there, we have a brief introduction of the warehouse about its functions and abit of everything about the warehouse.

I realised the warehouse was using the through flow system. Then they introduced to us the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). I think this is a very good system because it is fully computerised. And the computer will know the location of stored goods, this system can also store high volume of goods.

The warehouse also uses Mobile Racking and Shelving System, automatic guided vehicles and Vertical Carousel System for storage of goods. Using these systems reduce the manpower needed. The Vertical Carousel System fully utilize warehouse space usage and store mainly medical related goods which are small and light items.

The warehouse also uses RFID system to inspect and track the packages when receiving and delivering of shipments. I realised the order picking area is also air conditioned. It is noted that the order pickers are equipped with handheld devices which integrated with Warehouse management system. There are also many Material Handling Equipments (MHE) around, for example the AGV and, the Pallet AS/RS.

If there is any upsurge or emergency, the goods needed for the emergency can be assembled within 4 hours! That's totally cool and really very fast!

Ended my post @ 9:00 PM

Hi all! Our DCM group consists of jashawn, jing wen, kang cheng and gerald.

Jashawn,
The oldest among all of us, filled with many life experience. He is currently working at starhub, and he loves "freedom". A hardworking dude always full of ideas and craps. Good in marketing. He loves DCM more than starhub.

Jingwen,
The most "beng" among all of us, always act without thinking much. He always disturb classes and disrupt lessons. But he is very kind hearted, every weekened he will volunteer himself at the old folks home. He can't live without DCM.

Kangcheng,
The tallest among all of us, he always see things from the top. Organize and always do his tutorial. He is very helpful and loves to help people around him. He is also very influential. He loves DCM to death.

Gerald,
The shortest among all of us, he always see things from the bottom. He is small but carry a very big LV bag which is very cool. He is always joking around just like mickey mouse. He said DCM is the best subject he have ever studied.

DCM is known as Distribution Centre Management. It is the main control centre for the whole logistic operation as it involves the accepting of goods till the sending out of goods.

(Unloading goods from trucks -> storing of goods -> order-picking of goods -> marshalling of goods -> loading of goods to trucks for despatch)

It is like the basic of most of the companies. From what we know and understand, almost all company or job involves logistics. This shows that, having good fundamental or having a good basic is important to the further on work. In Chinese, there is a saying; having a good start is winning half of the battle, even before the battle start.

From the start of sem 2.2 till now, we find DCM handle-able. Although it has a lot of jargon and terms that we do not understand, but Mr Johnny Tan and our fellow classmates had explained it well to us through the Q&A session in vbus, the forum posting.

Furthermore, the field trip to ALB greatly increased our understanding about a warehouse as what we have is only imagination in our mind, but an actual trip to a warehouse clear a lot of doubts we have. Our conclusion about DCM is that it is an important part of a business and we will be the ones taking care of it in the near-future.

Ended my post @ 8:44 PM

testin testin

Ended my post @ 8:43 PM