Forte Warehouse Solutions has just completed implementation of a new cold storage facility in Centurion. According to Forte’s Anthea van Breemen, improving efficiency was a top priority which led the company to take a different approach. “We opted for a different configuration of the racking which is mapped into our Warehouse Management System (WMS) for automatic put away and picking sequences,” she explained. While the usual static racks on both ends of the mobile racking were retained, the cold store was fitted with another static rack in the centre as well. “When we asked the warehouse manager what the benefit was, we were told this makes for a more efficient picking function as the mobile racks can be opened on both sides of the middle static rack at the same time and so halve the time to open racks to pick and put away,” explained Van Breemen. She said to facilitate the different racking configuration some thinking was required on how to create routing using the layout. “The WMS system can handle routing that is different from the warehouse map layout. Routing within a cold store is done to increase efficiencies, as well as ensure that the mobiles are stacked from the bottom up for stability,” she said. “For this configuration, we had to consider the type of stock that was stored and the rules that apply to this stock. In some instances, the two mobile racked sides can be routed independently, if the mapping is done correctly. This was beneficial if the one set of mobile racks was set up as a pick face with bulk, and the other purely a bulk store.” Van Breemen said matched to this were the bar-coded pallet tickets that were automatically printed directly from the WMS on receipt of each pallet with the pallet number for identification and location for easy put away.
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We opted for a different configuration of the racking for automatic put away and picking sequences. – Anthea van Breemen
