Slotting for Velocity Can Really Slow You Down

Conventional, and most times correct, wisdom dictates that slotting a storage or pick area in a distribution center will yield increases in productivity and throughput. In a vast number of instances, it certainly does. Placing slower moving product, which is accessed infrequently, furthest away from the main activity area of your facility will avoid the wasted time of pickers or lift truck operators constantly walking past that product on their way to access the product or goods that are in demand.   Consolidating faster moving, more frequently accessed product closer to the points of receipt or shipment, will reduce the travel time spent accessing those items. So far, so good.  But, there's always a "but", blindly doing so, without consideration of how dense the activity in the velocity zoned pick area may become, or ignoring the physical characteristics of the zoned product, may actually reduce productivity and throughput.

If you perform velocity slotting. without consideration of product characteristics in a conventional pick area, where product is picked to pallets or even into totes in a less than case pick line, results can be problematic. In a pick to pallet environment if velocity zoning ends up driving pickers to pick light bulbs before cases of hammers, the results could be disastrous. In the worst case, with an inattentive picker, the order end up being topped off with hammers atop crushed light bulbs. In the best case, the picker will need to reorganize the pallet by moving the light bulbs, and using heavier, denser cases of hammers a base and then placing the light bulbs atop them. Even if the light bulbs were among the fastest moving product, they should be sequenced in the pick after heavier, less fragile product. Considering the varied characteristics of the picked product along with velocity when slotting product will yield the most productive and throughput possible without sacrifices such as damage or re-handling of picked product.