Collecting GOH items within the storage address

Generally GOH(garments on hangers) items are stored on a steel rod of a length of 1.30m. Every such length of a rod has a unique address name which is stored on warehouse WMS system. Every item from inbound is scanned to those addresses or to rails(a warehouse equipment on four wheels) so these items could be picked and delivered to the stores where they are sold. On winter season generally on a length of 1.30m 40-60 items are stored. But in summer, 60-90 items are stored on such addresses. Suppose on a such rod 30 different merchandises are stored and 5 different items should be picked out of 80. Searching these items within the rod could consume a lot of time. There is a way to decrease this search time.

While we scan merchandise when we first got items from suppliers we can also store the scanning date and time info in the WMS system. So we can know the merchandise location within the specific rod. For instance: A1 is scanned on 14:30:12, A2 is scanned on 14:30:20, A3 on 14:30:41 and so on. So when time to pick some of these items has come, picking list can be given ordered to the address location and the merchandise within the address could be sorted according to scan time info taken while scanning on inbound.


Suppose you have 8 different sizes or models hang on a specific storage area. They are hang on the following order: A1-first, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8 item is the last. A2, A5, A8 have to be collected. If the merchandise is ordered according to the description or model number the picking list could be like this: A8, A2 and A5. That is picker starts to search A8 from the beginning where A1 begins. After picker finds A8 item, he starts again from A1 and searches until he finds A2 and after A2 is found he starts his search again from A1 to find A5. And increases his picking time. But if picking list is sorted and printed by scanning time taken on inbound the pick list would be like this: A2, A5 and A8. Picker begins from A1. By picking A2 he starts searching from A3(not A1) and after collecting A5 he starts searching from A6 so he decreases picking time.

When I first implemented this feature picking quantity was increased by 25% per a picker increasing efficiency per picker.

Cross-Docking disadvantages

One of the biggest retail fashion industry giants entered Ukraine a few months ago. I had a chance to talk with logistics managers of the company. If I understood correctly they have only one distribution warehouse(DC) for Europe located in Europe. Merchandise is received from suppliers and delivered to Cross-Docking areas across the world from this DC. The advantages of this system: low cost of logistics operations in the neighboring countries. The company acts very quick to fashion industry changes and most of the suppliers for the trendy items are from Europe or neighboring countries. Suppliers are able to produce the apparel from a scratch in a few weeks and in small quantities. They able to make repeat orders. So the company has little risk while making orders of merchandise. If a merchandise has a good selling rate they make repeat orders so they actually minimize holding risks of stocks in DC.

In Ukraine two deliveries are done per a week from that DC. There are flat items and items on hangers. Items on hangers received on special boxes where items are hang. Items are in boxes and every box is for a particular store and labeled according to it. Travel time takes 4 days, the planned customs clearance time is 3 hours. For a delivery consisting of 5000 pieces and 800 different models it is quite challenging time period for customs. Generally truck leaves DC on Friday and arrives next week Tuesday and in the evening if everything OK the goods delivered to Kiev store. Another truck leaves on Monday and on Thursday evening it is in the Kiev store. Store has to wait 4 to 3 days between the delivery.

Picking by lot disadvantages

A few days ago I had a chance to chat with one of the managers of a big fashion retail company in Ukraine having over 13 000 m2 of sales area.

During this chat I asked how they do the distribution to stores in Kiev and in regions. He said that Kiev stores receive 2 deliveries per a week and regional stores also get 2 deliveries per a week. I asked why merchandise to Kiev stores is not delivered every day so they could rise sales by replenishing missing items in the stores. The answer was very simple: warehouse staff is unable to make deliveries everyday. In the warehouse there were 18 warehouse staff including managers. The maximum quantity that could be delivered to stores is 10000 items per day. The working day begins at 9am and ends in 18pm. Even if the managing staff consists of 3 personnel, for 7.5 working hours 88 items are collected by one worker per hour(total 15 workers). Items are collected, scanned, packed and loaded to the trucks. No value added services like price labeling etc are done.

They receive merchandise from suppliers in lots. Every package consisted of each size of a model and the quantity between sizes were not equal. The distribution between the sizes was done according to sales rates in Ukraine for a group of merchandises per particular size. For example if M size shirts are sold more than XS size then size distribution among the shirts is distributed in a way that M size will have the biggest quantity in the lot. For example a lot consisting of 6 pieces for 4 different sizes would be like this: XS: 1 piece, S: 2 pieces, M: 2 pieces, L: 1 pieces. When particular merchandise arrives to the warehouse for the first time and it is not in the stores yet, it is delivered to the stores by a lot. But when an item is sold from this lot, warehouse does not replenish the missing item to the store. Warehouse waits until the half of the lot is sold and after a half of quantity in a lot is sold they replenish that model by a whole lot. For example if a lot consists of 6 pieces they do not replenish it until 3 items of this lot are sold. Suppose we have a lot distribution of 4 sizes consisting of 6 pieces: XS:1, S:2, M:2, L:1. Suppose the first day merchandise arrives to the store, the same day XS size was sold. The other sizes were not sold. So next day if there was delivery, the store does not get the missing size of a model. They continue to sell the remaining sizes of that particular model. Suppose after 3 days another 2 S sizes were sold. The next day stores gets a whole lot of merchandise, of course if delivery is planned to that day otherwise even store has sold the half of a lot they have to wait another couple of days because delivery of merchandise is not done everyday. So at the end we have 1 XS, 2 S, 4 M, 2 L items. On total we will have 9 items of this product insted of 6. And by every delivery this size will get bigger and bigger. And of course the merchandise layout in the store will be damaged and a look of the store will be like a typical outlet store.

The other interesting thing was the inbound process. As the company sales area was big so the inbound quantity was big but models of merchandise were few. For example per one model in the truck there were on average 800 pieces. So an inbound truck consisted on average only 50 models. Even so the stores get these merchandise the earliest after 3 working days.