A warehouse is used to buffer inbound shipments and outbound customer orders. How much should be stored in a warehouse depends on the difference between the incoming shipment and the outgoing order.
How does one go about in designing a warehouse? The catch lies in understanding how picking and storage is going to happen in the warehouse. Both have opposite requirements and are the two most important deciding factors for a warehouse designer.
Remember, if you go for efficient storage, picking becomes complicated. If you go for efficient picking which normally means having a small number of fast moving or high-flying goods(as I like addressing them) in nearby locations, storage efficiency is reduced.
Let’s put it this way. The design of a warehouse would depend on which activity is going to dominate once the warehouse becomes functional.
If picking dominates, you need to have a compact picking area. You can go for some amount of automated picking.
If storage dominates, you need to have multi-levels and high bays .Picking can even be manual.
If both picking and storage are dominant activities, go for large DCs (Distribution Centres). You need to automate handling using MHEs(Material Handling Equipments) and also automate picking using either scanning devices or pick to light or voice picking.
If both picking and storage have low requirements, then a simple warehouse having pallets, shelves, racks with manual picking would suffice.
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