Warehouse Layout Design for an Automotive Raw Material Supplier

Abstract

The case-study company faces the limited space situation. Thus, the company decides to uninstall their temporary warehouses and re-locate products in two permanent warehouses. The objective of this research is to design the layouts of the two permanent warehouses so that the spaces can be efficiently used and the total picking distance is low. The past data, Invoices and Stock Data, are used for developing layouts designing processes. This research involves the collecting of Product Size Data to calculate the required space for the products. There are two phases in layout designing process. The first phase is the product categories grouping. This phase categorizes product categories into two groups for the two warehouses. The second phase is the layouts designing. In this phase, the layouts of the two warehouses and the locations of the products are designed. According to the company requirements and policies, the Adapted Class-Based Turnover Assignment is adopted in order to design the layouts for the two warehouses. Layouts of the warehouses are designed, analyzed, and evaluated. The best layouts give the best trade-off between quantitative results, i.e., the total picking distance and the remaining space, and qualitative results, i.e., the usability and the product suitability. The designed layouts are applied in the case-study company. This research develops a systematic and practical layout designing method which is flexible and can be adopted in other warehouses.