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Spacesaver – Defragging the warehouse

Wasted space is wasted money. So when Procter & Gamble’s Beauty Products production outgrew its Sydney warehouse they came to Orbit to see if we could help.

Space management in large warehouses needs specialised software to optimise storage. Developing, installing and setting up that software takes knowledge, practice and experience.

Our ‘Spacesaver’ software is a big tidying machine and it meant that P&G could put off building a new warehouse for their expanding storage needs.

More space for the least effort.


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PRODUCT STUDY

PROBLEM

When things get busy, companies with big factories also need big storage. More products off the production line have to go somewhere before dispatch. Invariably it is the warehouse right next door to the factory. Here the products are stored by location, usually stacked in rows.

One day the factory makes five types of shampoo, the next day it makes five types of conditioner.

That’s 10 types of products arriving in a warehouse that already has twenty other types of products on the shelves. Each lot of pallets is assigned a location in the warehouse when they arrive. The oldest product of each type needs to be shipped out first. So what is the best way to arrange the storage space to ensure minimum number of product movements?

We want to free up space so that we can store more product in the same available space and we want the products to be as close to first-in-first-out order as we can get them.

SOLUTION

Spacesaver is a defrag system for the warehouse. It will tidy up the warehouse storage space by re-allocating space so that the same product types are consolidated into the same locations. It will also make sure that the oldest products are accessible for shipment first.

Consolidating pallets means moving them. It takes time and effort. Spacesaver calculates the minimum number of movements that will lead to the most space being saved and consolidate the same product from multiple different locations into fewer locations to free up space.

It will also detect locations where products are out of order and can’t be accessed for first in first out.

RESULTS

When we first run Spacesaver it is not uncommon to free up 5 – 15 per cent of storage space in the warehouse. Running Spacesaver every day and performing at least some of the consolidation it recommends will keep the warehouse tidy.

Just imagine – what would you do if you gained an extra 10 or 20 per cent of space in the warehouse. You could store more product. And there is always a value in having some extra breathing space in the warehouse. And of course it means that you don’t need to build more storage space for a while yet. That’s a bonus.