Warehousing Profitably

Table of Contents

Part One — Understanding Today’s Warehouse

1. An industry in transition
• The ancient history of logistics
• The U.S. and the deregulation experiment
• A critical labor dispute
• Globalization
• The information revolution
• Third-party growth
• Cycle time
2. Improving warehouse productivity
   • Reducing the order cycle time
   • Emphasis on quality
   • Asset productivity
   • A new workforce

3. Supply chain, JIT, and benchmarking
   • Supply chain management, “a rose by any other name ...”
   • Just-in-time and its variants
     • JIT is a product of both fact and myth
     • JIT vs. congestion — a collision course
     • Using JIT for service and repairs
     • The role of warehousing
   • Benchmarking and the Holy Grail
     • Internal benchmarking

4. Adapting to the information age
   • Technology and forecasting
   • Information technology and control
   • EDI and the warehouse
   • The impact of electronic commerce
   • Evaluating system options
   • What to look for in warehouse management software

5. Avoiding labor pains
   • Creating a participatory environment
   • The crucial role of the supervisor
   • The fine line of delegating properly
   • Logistics outsourcing
   • Labor disputes

6. Reverse logistics management
   • Environmental returns
   • Marketing returns
   • Organizing for reverse logistics
   • The role of the warehouse manager
   • A retail example
   • Should you outsource reverse logistics?

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Part Two — Warehouse Control

7. Quality and productivity
   • The growth of quality awareness
     • Quality metrics in the distribution center
     • TQM within the warehouse
     • Success factors for TQM
   • Quantity vs. quality
   • Increasing warehouse productivity
     • Establish improvement targets
     • Reduce distances traveled
     • Increase unit load size
     • Round trips
     • Improve cube utilization
     • Free labor bottlenecks
     • Reduce item handling
     • Improve the container
   • A different way to look at productivity

8. Third-party or do-it-yourself?
   • Outsourcing logistics services
     • Core competency and outsourcing
   • The preparatory steps
   • How to select a third-party operator
   • Fourteen criteria to consider
     1. Multiple warehouse facilities nationwide
     2. Inventory management and control
     3. Order acceptance and processing
     4. Pick-and-pack operations
     5. Order fulfilment
     6. Assembly/packaging/value-added activities
     7. Credit card verification
     8. Invoicing, credit, and collection
     9. Pre-sort capabilities
     10. Returns handling
     11. Manifesting
     12. Operational management structure
     13. Organizational strategic direction
     14. Financial stability
   • Evaluation
     • The contract
     • The pricing challenge

9. Planning and scheduling
   • Corporate strategy and warehousing
   • Data drives decisions in warehousing
     • Short-interval scheduling
     • The importance of proper sequence
     • Planning for equipment use
     • Shift scheduling
   • Contingency planning

10. Understanding warehousing costs
    • Measuring storage costs
      • A unit storage cost calculation
      • The influence of inventory turns
    • Measuring handling costs
    • Appendix A

11. Asset accountability and utilization
    • Cargo liability vs. warehouse liability
    • Managing inventory
    • Controlling space utilization
      • The typical storage space calculation
    • Controlling the lift truck fleet

12. Reducing errors
    • The cost of an error
    • Preventing warehouse errors
      • A locator system prevents errors
      • Markings as a source of errors
      • Dyslexia and inventory errors
      • Picking documents
      • Use of bar coding
    • Receiving — locking the barn door
      • To check or not to check?
      • Physical factors in the warehouse
    • Personnel factors
      • Identification with work
      • Pareto analysis and errors
      • Rewards for the stars

13. Measuring performance
    • The unique factors
    • Measuring effectiveness
      • How efficient is your warehouse?
      • Quantifying space utilization
    • Improving storage productivity
      • Calculating a storage payback
      • Quantifying handling productivity
      • Justifying handling improvements
      • Simulation in the warehouse
      • Measuring performance by account
    • Monitoring several warehouse locations
    • A sixty-minute warehouse evaluation

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Part Three — Warehouse Management

14. Finding the right people
    • Finding people in a scarce labor market
      • Nontraditional employees
    • Retaining good people
      • The interview process
      • Evaluation
      • Reference checks
      • Probation
      • Proficiency tests

15. Management productivity
    • Success factors
      • Motivation
      • People development
      • Management’s ethical responsibility
    • Generation management in warehousing
    • Maintaining service expectations
    • Improving your managerial skills
      • The importance of communication
      • Running effective meetings
    • Transition from worker to manager
      • Developing future managers

16. Training for excellence
    • Managers as teachers
      • Training goals
      • Orientation
      • Mentoring
      • The transition from worker to manager
      • The fine art of delegating
      • Leadership by example
    • Training lift truck operators
    • Training for superior performance

17. Motivation, discipline, and continuous improvement
    • Motivation and retention programs
      • Flexible work schedules
      • New approaches to work
    • Six ways to motivate warehouse workers
    • Managing performance
      • Maintaining warehouse discipline
      • Discipline by peer review
      • Continuous improvement

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Part Four — Security

18. Controlling the inventory
    • Physical inventories
      • Preparing for the physical count
      • Anticipating problems
    • Cycle counting
      • Acceptance of cycle counting

19. Theft and mysterious disappearance
    • Responsibilities of the warehouse operator
    • Two kinds of losses
      • Controlling collusion theft
      • Confirming employee honesty
      • The handling of references
      • Other collusion theft controls
    • Undercover investigations
    • Security audits
    • Physical deterrents
      • Restricted access
      • Customer pickups and returns
    • Security procedures

20. Protecting your people
    • Personal appearance and housekeeping
    • Safety
    • Federally mandated training
    • Ergonomics and safety
      • Reducing manual handling risks
    • Substance abuse in the warehouse
    • Warehousing ethics — a matter of trust

21. Protecting the property
    • Power failure
    • Casualty losses
    • Fire
      • Sprinkler systems
      • Dry-pipe systems
      • Wet-pipe systems
      • Other protection against fire
      • A new type of sprinkler system
    • Windstorm losses
    • Causes of cargo damage
      • Flood and leakage
      • Mass theft
      • Vandalism
    • Surviving an insurance inspection
    • Plant emergency organizations
    • Reviewing protection

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Part Five — Handling of Cargo

22. Receiving, put-away, and storage
    • Physical aspects of receiving
      • Receiving as a process
      • Put-away
    • Stock locator systems
      • Installing and maintaining a locator system
    • Your warehouse layout
      • The affinity factor
      • Load characteristics
      • Special operations
    • Planning for changes

23. Order selection and cross docking
    • The influence of velocity
    • Order picking in your warehouse
      • Varieties of order picking
      • The bucket brigade
    • Cross docking
      • Success factors in cross docking
      • Reverse order picking
    • Planning for improvements

24. Unitized loads
    • The standard pallet
    • Unitizing without pallets
      • Mandated slipsheets
    • The search for a better pallet
      • Plastic pallets grow in acceptance
      • Understanding pallet costs
      • Store-ready pallets for retailers

25. Specialized storage
    • Temperature-controlled warehousing
    • Hazardous materials warehousing
      • What is a hazardous chemical?
      • Regulations and training
      • Reliable hazardous-materials information
    • Fulfillment warehousing
    • Household goods storage

26. Warehouse technology
    • Tools or toys?
    • Understanding space economies
      • How pallet racks improve space utilization
      • Other storage rack options
      • Live storage
    • Other order-picking tools
      • Carousel systems
      • Conveyor systems
      • Automatic guided-vehicle systems
    • Choosing a lift truck
      • Operator location
      • Lift attachments
      • Narrow-aisle vehicles
      • Brand selection

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Part Six — Information Systems

27. Computers and customer service
    • Hardware vs. software
    • Choosing warehousing software
      • Finding a warehouse management system
      • Choosing a WMS
      • A WMS meltdown
      • Other WMS pitfalls
    • Implementing a WMS
      • Training
    • Systems and service

28. Electronic identification
    • Bar codes
      • A user’s view of bar coding
      • The myth of bar coding expense
      • What will bar coding do for you?
      • The radio frequency epidemic
      • Bar coding and Luddites
      • Pitfalls of automatic identification
      • 2-D bar codes
    • To check or not to check?

29. Approaching warehouse automation
    • How technology fits in
      • The benefits of mechanization
      • The risks
      • Mechanization in the 21st century

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Part Seven — Starting a New Warehouse Operation

30. Finding the right location
    • Developing a requirements definition
      • Speed limits and warehousing
      • Access
      • Attitudes
      • Utilities
      • Climate
      • Flexibility and financing
    • The selection process
      • Outside advice
    • A checklist to locate your next warehouse
      • Governmental restrictions
      • Geographic restrictions
      • Transportation
      • Utilities
      • Security considerations
      • Labor market
      • Community attitudes
      • Taxation
      • New construction considerations

31. Warehousing is real estate
    • A case example
    • Getting around accounting standards
    • Flexibility vs. control
      • Real estate as a corporate investment
      • The decline of cookie cutters
      • Third-party operators as investors
    • The make-or-buy question
      • Understanding real estate costs
      • When should you build?
    • The rehabilitation alternative
      • Repairing warehouse roofs
      • Rejuvenating warehouse floors

32. Warehouse construction
    • Understanding total development costs
    • Better ideas for construction
      • Parking lots
      • Foundations and floors
      • Docks and drive areas
      • Structural system and roof
      • Illumination and heating
      • Fire protection systems
      • Walls and interior finish
      • Exterior finish
    • Layout design
      • Economies of scale
      • Wear and tear

33. Warehouse start-ups
    • The importance of a smooth start
      • Building the project team
      • Charting the process
      • Ongoing communication
      • Resources
    • How much can your warehouse hold?
      • Developing a procedures manual
      • Building on successful experience
    • Opening the warehouse
      • A warehouse start-up checklist
      • Receiving
      • Shipping
      • Materials handling operations
      • Use of space
      • Sanitation, security, and safety

34. Moving a warehouse
    • Establishing a target move date
    • Estimating moving costs
      • An example
    • How long will it take?
      • Volume Assumptions
      • Time Assumptions
      • Calculations
      • Continue services or suspend operations?
    • Communications

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Part Eight — The Future

35. Warehousing in a world economy
    • Meeting customer demands
    • Re-engineering the warehouse
    • Postponement
    • Expanding into developing nations
    • The future of world logistics technology

36. Staying current in the new century
    • The facets of change
    • Electronic commerce
    • Information sources
      • Publications and research
      • Seminars
    • A developing professionalism
    • Upgrading the tools
    • Putting it all together

Index

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