Improving the Ergonomics and Picking Efficiency for a Vitamin and Supplements Manufacturer

Background and Challenges

The raw materials (RM) warehouse was established to support the production team. RM were picked based on production work orders and transferred to production’s dispensing rooms where the RM were dispensed in a specific order to create different products. The process of order picking involved a single warehouse associate using a forklift, as well as manual handling to palletize and stage orders for shipment.  For each production work order, the RM were picked and delivered on a pallet in a variety of container types, sizes, and weights. The RM containers included corrugated boxes, paperboard cylinders, plastic drums, and paper sacks. Depending on the product’s recipe, the number of RM varied from a few to several dozen, resulting in some production orders of up to 10 pallets. The orders were picked and palletized to optimize the travel of the picker, but this resulted in a sequence of containers that was less advantageous for the dispensing process, due to the manual double and triple handling of products. 

In summary, the RM warehouse was experiencing a tedious and unsafe picking process that was then leading to a tedious and unsafe production process. Establish’s goal was to determine how the picking process could be optimized and made safer in both the RM warehouse and production’s dispensing rooms.

The Evaluation and Analysis

First, Establish evaluated the entire warehouse operation, from receiving through production, and analyzed warehouse and production data, to understand the challenges and determine opportunities for improvement. Through the evaluation, it was determined that slotting was going to be the key that tied everything together. By slotting the product in an optimized way throughout the RM warehouse, it would enable the use of new material handling equipment for safe handling and create a more optimal picking process whilst ordering products in a more optimal sequence for the dispensing rooms.

Findings

• Barrels were always used to start the build of a pallet based on their size and shape.

• 80% of the non-barrel product was under 70kgs.

• Items were graded as A, B, or C based on their usage. There were enough floor bay positions for all A items to have 2 floor bay pallet positions and B/C items to have 1 floor bay pallet position.

• By analyzing the BOMs, the typical order in which products are utilized in the dispensing rooms was determined.

The Results

Product stored in barrels were stored together near the front of the warehouse since they are picked first. With all the barrels together, it allowed for a drum handler to be stored at the end of the aisle that could be used to handle the drums easily and safely without disrupting the picking process. The rest of the items were stored based on their reverse dispensing order so that travel time during picking could be minimized and so that pallets could be built in the optimal order for the dispensing rooms. Each product was assigned a floor bay position for picking (A items received 2 positions to minimize replenishment), with overstock in the rack above. Some forklift attachments that enable safe lifting of product up to 50kgs were recommended to enable safe picking of the rest of the items without disrupting the picking process.

By focusing on the slotting strategy, new material handling equipment was able to be utilized to ease the ergonomic and safety concerns. In addition, by slotting items based on frequency and making every item accessible at the floor level, the picking time for production orders was reduced by 50%. Finally, picking in reverse dispensing order increased dispensing efficiency by 30% by reducing the extra handling and search times.