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Getting in to the Golden Zone

By Steve Mulaik and Padmini Madarapakam Pagadala published in the WERCSheet for May-June 2010.
One of our recent research projects has focused on Golden Zoning—the lesser cousin of Slotting. With
Golden Zoning you ensure that the more popular piece picked items in a warehouse are slotted vertically where
they can be more easily reached. We shot video of several operators in a couple of different facilities and
then measured the time spent extracting product from different tiers of the site’s forward pick area. To read about our results, click here.

By James M. Apple, Jr. and published in Modern Materials Handling Magazine.
Several years ago (May, 2002), I reported a number of thoughts on choosing methods for slotting products in the pick face. They are all still valid. However, on some recent projects, we have discovered that getting the slotting strategy right is only half the battle. The other half is maintaining the discipline of keeping up with the changes.
Choosing the slotting strategy and the initial locations for all of the products results from a comprehensive analysis of product activity and order data. With this data, we can create the perfect pick face for last month’s activity. But, the dynamics of today’s business often make shambles of yesterday’s data. And, no matter how good our original plan was, we will lose its benefit if we don’t keep up with the changes. more...

By James M. Apple, Jr. and published in Modern Materials Handling Magazine.
Everyone seems to be preaching the need to improve slotting in the warehouse – myself included. But, the more that I study the needs for each specific situation, the more complicated the process becomes.
Of course, we don’t have a choice to slot – or not. In every warehouse all products must be assigned to some location when they are put-away so that we can find them again. more...