IT Solutions To Warehouse Design Approach For Its Cost Effective Operations

Abstract

Increased and spiraling demand for a more variety and higher volumes of the products with the ever present constraint of available space are pushing the need of optimum warehouse (re)design and its cost effective operations. IT solutions may significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse design process and operation through decreased labor efforts, chances for error and time needed for order picking. The paper presents the use of IT Tools in design of Warehouse and its inherent functions of inventory maintenance and order picking. Optimization of most aspects of warehouse is done by developing a computerized generic warehouse layout design that can be adapted by any industry and also tweaked for specific requirements. The ultimate goal of such optimization is to balance long term capital costs such as land and infrastructure for the Warehouse and short term functional costs such as material handling and labor consistent with projected growth.