I love this video because it shows me how do such giants warehouse distribute customers orders in the picking station and, if you focused on the detail, the position of those boxes are well setted ,there’s nothing special but make it square with robot pallet size.
Some employees who work in IKEA was asked why do you feel happy in such a giant warhouse facing with those robots every day?
A single mother replied that, they are just few workers(average to 100)here, but the automatic order-picking eliminate some kind of work and task which they were supposed to implement before.Now, she has time to send her kids to chirldren and accompany them somehow.
Automatic order-picking system reduce orders preparation cost and numbers of personnel working in warehouse. Some of the benefits like control inventory management well, less risky in peronnel safety problem and, make the pallet more precisely.
It has been using more commonly nowadays, such an advanced technology drives logistic supply chain developed more resultful.
As a division of supply chain segment, transportation is the only way to meet customers instant gratification and it’s needed to be calculated well for the same-day delivery, which enables the core operations function in an effective way.
Quantity, pallets, movements are relative key words in transportation management. A good transportation management can help removing the unnecessary shipping expenses and others resource outputs. On the other hand, time management has been improved somehow, because customers may consider deliver time is a partial of customer service and is very important.
While not each product can be distributed by ship, bu bus or by plane etc..Just because of its distance, price and product itself attribute(eg: fresh products). In another words, when products are shipped, they are supposed to be put in a suitable,cheaper, safety and faster channel. However, optimized routing can save time and money.
Inventor drives revenue profitability and customers satisfaction, yet retailers are losing an estimated billions dollars a year by not properly managing one of the their greatest assets.
Computerized tracking systems have emerged as a key component of business strategies aimed at increasing productivity and maintaining competitiveness. So how successful is your
business with inventory management here are 4 fundamental practices that can be started in the right way:
Centralized Data
Precise Tracking
Supply and Demand
Auto Replenish
Attentions:
Basically, inventory management is about knowing your stock if there are enough products for offering to customers. If yes, you should consider the WHEN and HOW MANY that you will need to purchase more quantities to meet customer satisfaction. If not, the WHEN, HOW MANY and Why are needed to be thought deeply again.
In the class, our professor highlighted ,
“to have a huge quantities in the warehouse is not a good way, it will lead holding cost increases and ,customer purchase would be changed in the next year or in the next order. Especially for the seasonal products, which benefit depends on the climate condition”.
-Obviously, inventory needs substitute /replacement of suppliers(factories).When is out of stock,it is not available to place the order as usual in cooperated factories, it could failure of the delivery time is too long and is putting customer in a long waiting process. For instance, to find out another option to backup and maintain the quantities in stock is inevitable. What’s more, this occasion could happened when customers received defective items or lack of some spare parts, whom are urgently needed to gain the warranty products asap to satisfy customers needs. The more quantities of good it have , the more risk that it warehouse should be taken.
-The maximum and the minimum quantities of the stock are not be able to predict precisely. Decision makers purchased the quantities, model of products and decide the date to be arrived in warehouse just according to the average sale per year, per season,or per month.
-Control the inventory help making decision correctly, reduce the business cost, use the warehouse to have those goods, but NOT FOR HOLDING THEM.
-One more interesting point that José added at the end of the class:
People feel stressed when they are not stocked , customers would not prefer to see the color of pallet then they won’t buy that product which is not in shelf just because of phycology effect in Customer Purchase Behaviour.
For instance, inventory management is a curiously topic to learn and each theory class we have had will explain clearly what happened in our daily life.
Queueing theory is used to be studied of queueing or waiting in lines to be served by enterprising mathematical tools.When someone is asked “what is queue”, then it’s easy for one to reach of the image of themselves who are waiting for a line to be served in a supermarket on Monday evening.While queue is not targeted only in customers, also can be items, object or information.
For example, like Gmail, those mail onces customers received in mailbox according to the server, normally the latest one always in the first line ,that it is waiting to be checked and replied. In warehousing system, the amount of products are waiting to be distributed and input in the inventory system(ERP,CRM etc.).
Cases
Recently, us student were asked to compare Julia and Carmen’s case (FNAC and Apple store in Valencia).Some of us might not notice how exactly these 2 stores treat their customers and how they implement customer experience goal.
Both 2 girls wanted to purchase the targeted article in electronic devices stores. The final result was differentiate by the process of purchase and the way to be treat. Julia didn’t have a good shopping experience and have a lower satisfaction with the store where she had been because she was kept waiting all the time for obtaining information of stock of her wanted item , being told where should she go for the item and was not simplified to get her receipt. On the contrary, Carmen spent a great time in another shop and at the end she got what she desired.
After studying these 2 cases, dropped the attention(checkout line) of when a customer comes to the line , waiting to be charged, but after 30 sec, another customer joins the queue, and after 10 sec…,the cashier are supposed to improve her/his work efficiency,if not, that line will be accumulated with uncountless number. Nevertheless, a discipline of first-comes-first-serve(FCFS) is acceptable and logical rule in a queue .Likewise, last-come-first-serve(LCFS) also is normal when the first queue is overloaded, then the second queue will be appear. Obviously, the last customer in the first queue will be served preferentially.I do believe that the majority of customers are not satisfied with this unfair-treated service because of breaking the rule of FCFS and some might leave for home.
For instance, queueing is dealing with one of the most unpleasant experience of life, waiting to be…Whatever, queueing theory can be summarized that it’s related to arrival process, what will customers act when they are not willing to wait for a long line then to be served,how customers are treated and the rules to be served.
Little’s Law
which was first proven by mathematician John Little, states that the average number of items in a queue can be calculated by multiplying the average rate at which the items arrive in the system by the average amount of time they spend in it.
L = λW
3 input Little’s law is useful in analyzing how a queue has performed over some time.
Eg: Wants to figure out the average number of tequila that are stored in warehouse.
W: Average arrival rate of the tequila(carton) into the warehouse is 5000 per year
λ: Average time the company spend in warhouse is about 3 weeks
Internactional comercial, Warehousing, Inventory, Customer-based, Servution System
Distribution of network is about knowing what is service and what is the know-how. The whole logistic supply chain is serving around targeted customers or the end users’ need by finding out features which could impact customers purchase behaviours .The marketers are supposed to keep it in their mind firstly.
Those brick-and-mortar stores are taking into account how they can make transit with customers by performing :
1.response time
2.product variety
3.product availability
4.customer experience
5.time to market
6.order visibility
7.returnability
ALDI, the famous known supermarket,could be used as a metaphor like a mini society supply chain , who performs the intermedia agency to meet customers need by delivering food and providing great value and quality. Since opening its first store in 1913, ‘To provide our customers with the products they buy regularly and ensure that those products are of the highest possible quality at guaranteed low prices is their business concept. Aldi’s products are sourced from hand-picked suppliers whose products are sold under Aldi’s own brand labels. Why customers get use to buy food in supermarket instead of going to those huge warehouse, it could be answered that supermarkets business model called Servution System.
Customers can have auto-service by themselves when they are selecting articles without any employees next to them.In the same time, staff in supermarkets are prepared to help solving customers’ doubts. During the purchase process, product variety are available in shelves that’s why customers could spend time looking around the products and having a good shopping experience. Likewise, supermarket stock is for storing food and manage the products quantities if it’s still on stock or sold out, for refilling the shelves and meet customers gratifacation.
Distribution network can easily be modeled and gain benefits:
1.reduced unessary cost of distribution.
2. enhance customer satisfaction and improve its service.
3. understand cost of service, transportation, and warehousing .
4. maintain inventory stock and market need.
Supply chain management is a transport process by carrying out the goods to customer and customer. As for manufacturer, trading companies are their main customers,while retailers are the main target customers .The end user can meet their desire of wanted products in shop. It’s about Need of Things.
In the era of globalization today, Asian countries have increased the number of amout of exportation .They are making a great progress of being a huge fatory market and making a great contribution of distribution of network. Those mergered developing countries produce the wanted goods and ship them by ship, by air or by truck. This transport process establish the base for suppliers and retailers to allocate their products to customers. They are not visible as the product availability in a supermarket, but it does implement achieving customer service and meet customer needs.
At the beginning, I was confused and resisted to learn logistic this subject.After implanting an array of research and study page by page by myself,I realized of logistic was born for customers’ needs,which would be considered priority. I would also say, was appeared by each of us. Let’s start with example.
We are playing one of the important role in Supply Chain
When we go to Mercadona for a carton of milk, it’s not only a simple milk that we saw. One carton of milk came from one farmer. It was supposed to be packaged well and this carton of milk needed to be brought by transportation. It could be by ship, airplane, or truck. When it arrived in to Mercadona, that’s what we saw at the end. Since the quanty is huge, and requirement is increased, then this is about the Supply Chain of Things. This movement of bringing the goods, we called Logistic.
Supply Chain and Logistic
But why we need logistic? The answer would be responded:
End customer won’t be possibled to go to purchase one carton of milk in factory because of the long distance, huge quantity and they won’t sold by particular item.
It takes over the responsibility to keep the goods in a good condition when they arrived in the stock.
Implementing the supply chain needs the transportation. In this case, products design ,market and pallets are crucial.
Logistic plays an important role in warehousing. When the goods arrived, it needs a big space to be received, stored and shipped again to the suppliers, then retailer and end customers.
Recycling and economical. Once accomplished the first shippment, those pallets , containers and other relevant material will be returned , reused from end customers to the manufactors.
Summarizing those functions, logistic implement the whole supply chain and is the backbone of it. The end purpose of this complex process, is to meet customers’ need. What’ more, logistic was driven by Techcnology. It takes full advantages of controling the stock, inventory, work more efficient, improving communication rate between suppliers, factories and store staffs.
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 