Process Improvement Paper
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- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 05/21/2013 05:11 AM
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Process Improvement Paper
Name here
OPS/571
March 31, 2013
Larry Oslund
Case Pick Process Improvement
Introduction
Of all the warehouse processes Case Picking gets the most attention. The labor associated with this order fulfillment takes up and large portion of the warehouse operating budget and is directly connected to customer satisfaction. For a 3PL like ours, we service not only a major Big Box Retailer but the thousands of customers that visit its stores on a daily basis. The key objectives are to increase productivity, reduce cycle time and increased accuracy; for the past 12 months CPH rates have dropped by almost 40%. This is decline in productivity has case a significant decline in revenue. It is vital that we improve this process in order to keep the contact with the customer for another 5 years.
Process
At the distribution center we practice Zone Picking which is the case-picking version of the assembly line. In Zone picking, as the name implies, order pickers are assigned a specific and physically defined zone in the pick area. The picker assigned to each zone is responsible for picking all of the SKUs that are located in the zone for each order. In the event that an order requires SKUs that are located in multiple zones, then the order is filled after it passes through each zone. This is typically referred to as "pick and pass" methodology. Additionally, in zone picking there is only one scheduling period per shift. Therefore, there is a cutoff point for orders to be queued into the order picking process and any order received after that cutoff point will get fulfilled during the next shift. (As the name implies, order pickers are assigned a specific and physically defined zone in the pick area. The picker assigned to each zone is responsible for picking all of the SKUs that are located in the zone for each order. In the event that an order requires SKUs that are located in multiple zones, then...
Name here
OPS/571
March 31, 2013
Larry Oslund
Case Pick Process Improvement
Introduction
Of all the warehouse processes Case Picking gets the most attention. The labor associated with this order fulfillment takes up and large portion of the warehouse operating budget and is directly connected to customer satisfaction. For a 3PL like ours, we service not only a major Big Box Retailer but the thousands of customers that visit its stores on a daily basis. The key objectives are to increase productivity, reduce cycle time and increased accuracy; for the past 12 months CPH rates have dropped by almost 40%. This is decline in productivity has case a significant decline in revenue. It is vital that we improve this process in order to keep the contact with the customer for another 5 years.
Process
At the distribution center we practice Zone Picking which is the case-picking version of the assembly line. In Zone picking, as the name implies, order pickers are assigned a specific and physically defined zone in the pick area. The picker assigned to each zone is responsible for picking all of the SKUs that are located in the zone for each order. In the event that an order requires SKUs that are located in multiple zones, then the order is filled after it passes through each zone. This is typically referred to as "pick and pass" methodology. Additionally, in zone picking there is only one scheduling period per shift. Therefore, there is a cutoff point for orders to be queued into the order picking process and any order received after that cutoff point will get fulfilled during the next shift. (As the name implies, order pickers are assigned a specific and physically defined zone in the pick area. The picker assigned to each zone is responsible for picking all of the SKUs that are located in the zone for each order. In the event that an order requires SKUs that are located in multiple zones, then...