Waves and Warehouse Management Systems
By Don Benson, PE - www.warehousecoach.com
Early in my consulting career, I had the good fortune to work for a firm that designed some of the first Warehouse Management Systems and assisted many organizations build and implement them. A key to those systems is a technique we now call Wave Picking. I am probably the last consultant from that firm that spread this concept into the supply chain industry. Interestingly, like the game of telephone in elementary school, Wave Picking has changed over the years.
Recently I have been asked to help with several WMS projects in which the distribution centers were not achieving their performance objectives. One of the elements I discovered was that some managers did not understand or were not using the Wave processing capability of the WMS effectively. So, I thought it might be an interesting bit of history, a useful theme when evaluating current WMS operations, or setting criteria for WMS selection, to review some of the most important and powerful elements of Wave Picking, and how this that can increase the value of Warehouse Management Systems by improving the utilization of warehouse staff and increase throughput.
We created and implemented Wave Picking based on our experience that with better information, warehouse mangers would improve their performance and that of their organization, particularly with regard to labor. We started with the information describing the workload for the next day or shift. With the information we could, using an old Industrial Engineering concept called Short Interval Scheduling to divide the work into periods (Waves), sequence the orders, and direct the staffing to create a uniform flow across the dock. The key aspects of Wave Picking in a Warehouse Management Systems are the ability to
1. Plan the flow of orders so that they arrive at the shipping dock in the sequence of loading, minimizing handling on the dock;
2. Plan the workload for the day, adjusting manpower or the work to be completed to minimize or eliminate any carryover from one day to the next;
3. Plan the staffing by work area, by wave, in direct relationship to the work assigned to each work area by wave, to best use available personnel;
4. Measure actual productivity throughout the day by work area, by Wave, and provide the data with which to more accurately estimate the manpower requirements by day and measure change;
5. Monitor and control performance maintaining the schedule for the day as defined by the work by Wave, to know and respond more quickly to performance issues, by Wave throughout the day;
6. Create a structured discipline of daily operations to demonstrate that supervisors were directing the work, and not just observing and reacting, and that they had the capacity to control performance;
7. Have data with which to
a. Compare performance with other work shifts, other companies, and across industries;
b. Provide a baseline for setting department goals, discussing process changes (Lean, TQM, etc.), and budgeting;
c. Provide daily feedback to the staff about their performance as a team
d. Better understand and work with the nature of the work, and how it changes seasonally, as a consequence of changes in demand; and as a consequence of sales efforts and marketing campaigns
If you have a WMS and you do not get this kind of information to manage your operations, or it is available and you are not using it to manage your resources, give me a call and let us start achieving the return on investment that you expected when you installed your WMS..
You can reach me at 503-296-7249 or Don@warehousecoach.com.