DC Velocity - August 2015

34 DC VELOCITY AUGUST 2015 www.dcvelocity.com s p ec i a lr ep or t

N EW WAY S T O R EDU C E WA R EHOU S E CO S T S

more densely onto a truck, while reducing the potential for damage during transport. This approach can also save money on shipping costs at a time when both UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. have adopted dimensional weight pricing for ground shipments, charging more for packages with greater volume.

4Boost labor efficiency. Workers cost money, whether it’s measured in sal- aries or the cost of keeping a work-
space warm, well lit, and ventilated. That
means DCs can cut costs by helping pickers
do their jobs more efficiently, using an
approach called “system-directed work.”
Built into many WMS applications, this
function identifies ways to avoid unnec-
essary travel between racks, shelves, and
pick stations. Instead of requiring pickers
to return to a central location after finishing each task, a
warehouse can use radio-frequency (RF) equipment or
voice technology headsets to immediately direct them to
the next task.

“We tell the operator what to do, then what to do next, then what to do next, then what to do next,” Kozenski says.

“The workers love it—they can just do their job, and at the
end of the day, they get to go home and have a beer.”
This approach is also helpful for training new hires, a task
that can be a full-time job in an industry where employee
turnover runs as high as 20 percent per year, he says. Once
a client has loaded a detailed warehouse map into its WMS,
the system can easily direct new hires to the
location of a certain aisle, row, or shelf.

A PAYOFF ON SEVERAL LEVELS

Cutting warehouse costs by reducing fuel consumption, electric bills, and greenhouse gas emissions is an investment that pays off both in more sustainable operations and in bottom-line profits. However a company justifies the decision to run a more efficient distribution center, it will see a payback on several levels.

“Some companies are more interested in green operations and sustainability than others, but everybody is interested in cost savings,” Kozenski says. “Efficiency is not a separate application.

“We’re in a world where all our customers are in continuous process improvement (mode),” he adds. “They are always looking for an additional way to save a little more money.”

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