Food and Drink Distributors: Best Practices.

To maintain competitive advantage and meet customer demands in today’s challenging environment, most organisations look to cut operational costs and increase facility throughput without adding personnel. However, achieving this can be difficult given that every distribution environment contains a limited set of resources – people, equipment, products and available storage space – which must be optimised to achieve a positive impact on fulfilment and distribution activities. Two components critical to this slotting optimisation are where products are slotted and the distance people have to travel to pick them – especially when it comes to fast-moving items.

Contents:

• Slotting by velocity – Slot items by velocity into locations based on fit and picking flow.
• Slotting by fit – Maximise cube utilisation by selecting a location that closely fits the item and sequence defined by its velocity.
• Balance zones – Distribute velocity across zones as evenly as possible.
• Slotting by velocity w/bulk picking – Slot assuming that smaller units of measure can be aggregated into bulk picks.