"I" Am A SMART Retailer
Cross docking is a common practice amongst the retailers and has been widely acknowledged to provide operational efficiencies and scales of economies. In my earlier blog I had mentioned about the warehouse shape and size and how it relates to effective cross docking practices. Let us take this discussion a little further.
Many retailers worldwide are deliberating if there is a distinct type of building shape that lends itself to optimal cross docking practices. Many a factor and considerations come into picture before a correct answer can be arrived at. Some retail warehouses may engage in planned cross docking where as the others may do it as a primary practice. This is one of the most important factors that need to be considered whether the building is meant to be primarily or even exclusively a cross dock operation, versus planned cross docks in combination with traditional wave picking or other fulfillment models. It is apparent that if significant storage and outbound functions like pick, pack, and ship operations are required; there is a different set of layout requirements than that for a pure cross dock facility.
Many a research has proved that cross docks with many doors are generally less efficient than cross docks with fewer doors. "I" shaped warehouse design is the most popular for cross dock buildings and is being adopted by retailers more and more these days. Using this design load or freight can be unloaded from an arriving trailer and carried over a relatively short distance across the dock to be loaded into an outbound trailer. This model has proved to be very effective when it comes to LTL shipments but this may not be the only one. In the LTL business model use of cross docking to transfer local pickups to the right outbound delivery truck is paramount. This is an example of a simple door to store shipment model. There are other popular warehouse cross dock designs like X, H, and T-shaped cross dock warehouses.
Like any other situation, there may be no one right answer but there is an optimum design just there for you. The trick lies in discovering it. For example very large docks should not use the I-design. All shapes feasible should be considered, with precise modeling to estimate labor costs and throughput. Many retailers ship to their end customers and cross dock the shipment at consolidated distribution centers. This is where the ERP or Host system could be modeled to provide the critical cross dock related information in the pick release instruction to the WMS. This information could relate to the data pieces identifying the consolidation distribution centers and the day of the week when this is to be performed. This would be more relevant to the warehouse performing planned cross docking rather than exclusive cross docking.
Retailer pan globe need to balance the equation of robust systems and optimum warehouse shapes to derive maximum benefits. IT follows business. It can be made use of to meet the business imperatives and help an organization become world class. Optimum warehouse shape is a SMART way to achieve cross docking efficiencies. It is a Simple Method to Achieve Rapid Throughput.
