Warehousing design for automotive manufacturing

Abstract

With growing market share and production volumes increasing in number and diversity. This study is developed and presented in warehouse design to support the amounts of higher volumes and to improve existing resources to support the company strategy to compete in the market. In this case, the automotive manufacture’s name is “ABC Company”. Methodologies and the existing warehouse condition including the layout (physical design), warehouse operation and material handling resources are considered in the warehouse design. The warehouse is categorized into 3 zones depending on part characteristics and operation; a small box with picking operation zone, a pallet load with picking operation zone, and a bulk zone. The number of SKUs be stored in the warehouse and the container condition in each area determine the storage module. In the small part zone, the additional gravity flow is selected due to its alignment with the existing flow rack and layout, the picking operation and material container suitability. In the pallet load and picking zone, additional gravity free rollers are introduced in order to support ergonomic and FIFO processes. For bulk materials, improved utilization of the air space in the existing design is done by installing racking systems to utilize the air space in the bulk pallet load material zone. In total, warehouse space is increased 56.32%. The warehouse operation process steps and element times are analyzed. Main processes, unloading/receiving and inspecting, inspecting and put-away are focused on. The process element time is developed by checking the highest time consumption and eliminating documentation transfer time. The result in warehouse operation and information flow is a 54.22% improvement. Material handling resources are related to the production line rate. The validation of the designed warehouse is done by implementing the storage module and running trials for warehouse operation. The result shows the appropriate figures, that the physical design is useful for the actual operation, is user friendly and has a flexible design. In term of investment, this design requires a one time investment and is worth for supporting the future increase in manufacturing volumes.