Introduction

A small-item and flatware order-fulfillment operation is a very complex operation, with customer order pick and pack activities at the heart of the operation. The factors that contribute to the complexity of facility design, equipment layout, and management control for vendor-delivered units (UOPs) and customer order (CO) flows are:

• SKU characteristics

• Number of SKUs with (a) different UOP classifications, (b) large inventory along with a store and hold requirement, and (c) pick position number

• Large number of COs, wide CO lines, CO pieces, and mix per CO; COs have (a) a wide product mix, (b) short CO order/delivery cycle time, and (c) wide fluctuations in CO volumes, pieces, and lines per order and total daily pieces

• Potential for value-added activities

• Maximum number of work stations that can fit in the facility and the potential to have automated pick concepts

• Number of employees

• Potential for a multi-level facility

• Requirements for vendor delivery trucks or ocean-going containers, including dock receiving areas and delivery truck areas

• Local building codes

• b Operational costs

The objectives of this chapter are to:

• Identify and evaluate the characteristics of a small-item and flatwear order-fulfillment operation, and design parameters for a facility. These guidelines apply whether you are remodeling an existing operation or developing a new one.

• Review manual, mechanized, and automatic pick concepts and design parameters.

• Introduce manual picker routing patterns.

• Describe pick area equipment and layout.

• Identify activities that can ensure efficient, accurate, and on-time UOP and CO flows through a small-item order-fulfillment facility.