Cheap Warehouse Space

Outline
In the late 80s, the ability of the PC to change business processes and thinking was becoming clear. The number of applications was growing rapidly and their price falling exponentially. Amongst the applications emerging were warehousing optimisation ones.
Realising the opportunity, I ‘found’ 6-10% more space in a warehouse belonging to a Unilever Company overseas by revising product stacking patterns on pallets at a cost a few hundred pounds. Extension to the warehouse was impossible as the site was severely constrained.
Status – Finished

• Project
  The Company had a racked warehouse for storing finished product prior to dispatch. Sales volumes were increasing at 10% plus pa and the warehouse capacity was becoming a constraint on dispatches.

• The Issue
  How could the company get better use of the warehouse without significant investment

• Result
  there was a suspicion that the cube utilisation of some key products was low and it was known that some products could have an extra layer put on the top of a pallet but this was not done on the production line.
  Using a software package, the stacking patterns of key products were analysed and by a mixture of revised stacking patterns and carton design, it was possible to increase capacity by 6% at very little cost