The details of warehouse management determine success or failure, and warehouse managers are very wronged and confused.

Chapter 65438 +0? : the warehouse manager's troubles

In production enterprises, due to problems such as inventory and counting, processing and sending. In the process of enterprise operation, warehouses are constantly divided into warehouses, warehouse personnel are randomly mobilized, increased or decreased, and warehouse materials are piled up and dumped in chaos ... The peak season is coming, and the warehouse scale is constantly expanding or renting, warehouse equipment is constantly purchased, and enterprises are constantly recruiting warehouse personnel.

Finally, a deformed state is formed: warehouse materials are far greater than production materials, warehouse managers are far more than other personnel, warehouse equipment becomes the most important proportion of enterprise assets, and warehouses of various levels and types account for 80% of production enterprises when the area is the largest. In the off-season, almost all the expected resources have become "a pool of stagnant water".

Chapter 2: If the situation cannot be changed, what will happen to you?

Conceptually, warehouses should not be included in the logistics system unless it can be fully proved to be cost-effective. In the process of logistics operation, warehouse belongs to the stage of maintaining and increasing value, and there is also a process of input and output, but its output form is not reflected in direct profit, but in the cost of shortage, damage, quality, time and opportunity won by enterprises.

Therefore, warehouse management usually bears the inventory pressure caused by all the company's decision-making mistakes, but it has no strength and ability to solve these problems, because people never look at the control and management of warehouses and inventories from the height of the overall logistics of enterprises, which is a "dead corner" of warehouse management in production enterprises at present.

Chapter three: the beginning of change

Functionally speaking, warehousing is static, which can be understood as zero-speed transportation (space efficiency). Therefore, the proper choice of its functional model naturally has an important impact on the logistics of production enterprises.

The most common warehouse function operation mode is the traditional warehouse picking system. Picking goods is a traditional way of material exchange. Generally, when a workshop needs a certain material or spare parts, it is applied by the workshop user, examined and approved by the workshop manager, and the workshop manager issues a picking list, and then the workshop user or a special person goes to the corresponding warehouse to collect it.

Generally speaking, if the warehouse faces multiple workshops or stores multiple materials, it is easy for different workshops or users of different materials to come to the same warehouse at the same time when picking materials, so the problem of queuing arises. As far as the logistics transformation of a large enterprise warehouse I saw before, the longest time for receiving materials was more than 30 people, nearly two hours. Many recipients come from the same workshop, but the materials of each group are not necessarily related to the work. Moreover, this does not include the delivery personnel who waited in line for a long time but returned empty-handed because they confirmed the goods or the documents were wrong. In order to avoid this extreme situation, most enterprises usually only adopt the following methods:

A) Divide the original warehouse into several smaller warehouse units, and each warehouse is responsible for a certain material quantity, so as to disperse the "gathering" density of picking personnel;

B) Increase warehouse management and distribution personnel to speed up warehouse distribution;

C) The workshop shall make a unified bill of materials and send people to collect the materials, so as to reduce the shortage of people brought by different groups in the workshop and reduce the pressure of people queuing in the warehouse;

D) In order to improve the professional level of the warehouse staff and speed up the delivery of materials, the warehouse staff carry out internal division of labor, and each person is responsible for the storage of several areas or certain materials in the warehouse, including purchasing, inventory, picking and issuing. And you must always know where a specific material is and how much it costs, which is dubbed "full responsibility" by the warehouse staff. There are many methods to choose from.

But in fact, in the actual operation of enterprises, especially with the increase of output or the arrival of peak season, the problem of queuing has been temporarily alleviated, and new problems have followed:

A) As a result of warehouse decomposition, there are more and more warehouses, and the space occupied by warehouse personnel, warehouse equipment and warehouses (external warehouses are naturally generated and unnecessary) is doubled, and the quantity of materials is also increased; Moreover, the scattered factors make the unified management of warehouses more difficult.

B) With the increase of delivery personnel, the warehouse is overcrowded. One of the pickers said that "the warehouse is like a canteen, full of people"; On the other hand, when the goods are picked up or the off-season comes, the material distribution personnel in the warehouse become "idle people", which not only increases the cost of inventory management, but also affects the morale of enterprises.

C) A bill of materials was opened in the workshop, and as the materials also increased, it turned out that one person could not take so many goods, so he had to "go to several more shops" or simply go to a team; On the other hand, due to the type, quantity and time of materials, the arrangement of selecting candidates every time has become a waste of time.

D) It is said that in order to improve the professional level of warehouse employees, the management of the company also takes the parameters such as material name, quantity, purchasing time, storage warehouse number and location in the warehouse as examination questions for employees, which really improves the distribution of materials in the warehouse. However, when warehouse employees change jobs or take sick leave, it "often appears" (the language of a warehouse supervisor).

In fact, with the development of business, once picking goods becomes a necessary job, the problem of people queuing will always exist; Moreover, due to the uncertainty of picking goods in the workshop, the working status of warehouse personnel and the quantity and storage period of materials cannot be effectively and fundamentally controlled, which makes the warehouse operation always in a passive state, and the rapid response of enterprise logistics operation becomes an empty talk.

In order to comprehensively improve the operational performance of the warehouse, it is necessary to comprehensively position, transform and upgrade the warehouse from the function. Judging from some modes of warehouse operation at present, the advantages of warehouse active distribution system in logistics operation of production enterprises are increasingly recognized by people. Especially in industries with more comprehensive handling and higher logistics frequency, such as machinery manufacturing, household appliances, electronics and other industries.

As we know, distribution refers to short-distance and small-scale transportation. The warehouse active distribution system is a distribution system established to ensure that materials (including production materials and spare parts for maintenance) from suppliers (or outsourcing manufacturers) to workshop production lines or finished or semi-finished products from workshop to workshop can meet the requirements of on-time operation. It should include the whole logistics operation process from supplier to storage to delivery to production station. In the production area, in order to rationalize the logistics, a special material storage, handling and warehouse management department uses a transportation system to distribute materials in several production departments or workshops with scheduled, quantitative and fixed-point material requirements. It is to change the picking (or one-time distribution) of different workshops, warehouses and materials into "centralized distribution of materials" without distinguishing between workshops and centralized distribution of materials.

The change from picking in the workshop to active distribution in the warehouse means that the operation and management of enterprise logistics in the warehouse is from the original passive state to the active state; Participate in the management, supervision and support from behind-the-scenes support to production front; From closed material management to open radial service management; From disorderly management to planned and organized logistics operation. It should be noted that the functional modes of warehouse material management in different industries should be selected according to the characteristics of enterprises/industries. In special industries where materials and products are relatively simple and the production rhythm is not obvious, the warehouse picking function may be more inclined.

Chapter 4: Your warehouse needs capacity planning.

When the warehouse function of an enterprise is reasonably selected and established, the capacity planning in the warehouse becomes the most important.

Generally speaking, the warehouse is most concerned about: how many goods can the warehouse store? What is the configuration of storage and handling equipment? How is the staffing? How are materials classified and stored? How to plan the space? How to control the frequency of purchase, shipment and distribution? To truly examine the storage capacity of a warehouse, we must start with key issues such as order, production plan and production rhythm, material characteristics classification, container selection and so on. So as to finally determine the above problems in the operation of the warehouse.

The basic idea of single material warehouse storage capacity planning is basically divided into five stages:

1) The material quantity is determined by the production resource plan of the enterprise. According to the production plan outline (or order) of the enterprise and the number of materials required for a single product, the specific quantity of materials (including quality, loss and discount) required during this period can be known; According to the calculation method of economic order lot size, we can know the accurate material quantity of the material in its characteristic sub-cycle.

2) Distribution frequency is determined by workshop capacity. According to the production capacity and efficiency of the workshop, we can know the production rhythm of a single production line or production team in each time unit, so we can know the specific material quantity required by each station, and the distribution frequency and "online storage time and storage capacity" are determined according to this parameter and related parameters such as handling path and handling equipment.

3) Analyze the material characteristics and determine the logistics container. According to the characteristics of the material (such as related dimensions, fragility, waterproof, fireproof and antistatic needs, etc.). ), you can determine the selection criteria of logistics containers, and you can also determine the standard loading capacity and standard loading mode of a single logistics container. This is a crucial step, because the standardization and packaging unitization of logistics containers are the basis of material handling mechanization, automation and three-dimensional storage, the key parameters of logistics equipment, managers and logistics space calculation, and the basic platform for the corresponding data of specific materials and warehousing management software.

4) Analyze the logistics container and determine the storage mode, handling equipment and staffing. According to the three-dimensional dimensions of logistics containers, including internal dimensions and external dimensions, total packing weight, stackability, transportability (that is, total material handling activity) and container manageability, the frequency of container flow (that is, material flow), stacking level (stacking height) and stacking mode in the warehouse, space occupied by cargo space, one-time handling capacity and selection and configuration of handling equipment can be determined, and can also be used. Here, the object of material management has changed from tedious materials to logistics containers, which makes the work greatly simplified, specific and accurate, which is an ideological leap. It provides a reasonable basis for the allocation of warehouse resources, the future inventory of the warehouse and the introduction of management software.

5) Analyze related resources and determine logistics management strategy. Only by defining materials, switching containers, and rationally allocating equipment and manpower can we determine the warehouse management mode, make the "5S" management and visual management of the warehouse go far, make the on-site management of the warehouse effective, and improve the distribution and management mechanism of the warehouse.

The above planning idea basically extends along the main line of warehouse material input, output, storage and analysis, so it is easy to ensure the accuracy of material control and the feasibility and economy of related resource utilization; Practice has proved that it is easy to achieve results in industries with high integration of materials such as home appliances, automobile manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, electronics, food and medicine.

It must be emphasized that in the process of warehousing, the dress of materials is the key, and the traditional warehousing management ideas often can't break the original "matter-of-fact" framework and directional thinking, and lose accurate judgment and wise choice on the economy of logistics containers. The idea of logistics planning must follow the principles of "container generalization, standardization and serialization" and "concrete analysis of specific materials" At the same time, in the planning of warehouse capacity and the selection of logistics containers, it is best to get objective guidance from professionals (such as logistics management or logistics equipment consulting companies with practical experience), from the overall and long-term perspective of enterprise logistics management.

Chapter 5: Performance Improvement

When all the logistics links of a warehouse-based enterprise are effectively combined, the specialized department of logistics management (which must be independent) should also be the main program to ensure that the delivery of materials (including production materials and spare parts for maintenance) or finished or semi-finished products between workshops within the enterprise can meet the on-time and high-performance operation requirements and actual operation results.

It is worth mentioning that after the functional positioning and capacity planning of the warehouse have been built reasonably, there must be a competent team to promote it strongly. This team should understand not only production operation, but also logistics management, have the power of logistics operation, and undertake the performance appraisal of high-level logistics services for production enterprises; In this way, we can organize logistics operation related departments and personnel to conduct comprehensive training, establish and implement a detailed performance appraisal system for all aspects of enterprise logistics management, accurately locate the logistics management of various departments, and finally improve the sense of responsibility and enthusiasm of employees to ensure the continuous improvement and promotion of logistics management.

In enterprise management, warehouse management does not represent the whole of logistics management, but its performance has become a bridgehead for the success of logistics management; In the planning of warehouse function and capacity, due to various reasons, there may be a gap between the expected value and the actual state (which is inevitable). However, if these key factors are guaranteed, at least the warehouse-production material management logistics can be integrated and rationalized.