Applying Warehouse Operations in a Store
At IKEA, warehousing at stores primarily resolves around the size of the packaging of the product (as cubes), that can be easily picked by the customer and placed on a shopping cart. This forms the basis of having the stores to metamorphose into pseudo warehouses where products are placed on the floor pallet location racking high enough for a person to reach for picking.
Bulk items are not placed here; instead, it’s more of self service items that can be picked and placed into a cart, are generally the ones that are considered. Replenishment however is done by moving stock placed in upper racks which are used as reserved locations which is usually done during night time.
Alternate ways of handling this would be is to provide enough floor space to accommodate gravity flow racks. Items can be replenished from the other end as and when stock is being picked up, which has to be close to the reserve locations in the store. This way, forklifts do not enter the display shelves at the front, rather that replenish from the rear end of these gravity flow racks. Once the shelf has reached a minimum level, the WMS system can trigger a zero-stock cycle count followed by replenishment process to fill the bin to the required level.
To conclude, this will help replenishment to take place as and when stock gets reduced without hampering the sales process, especially during peak season when sales volume are high, eliminating the need for forklifts and pallet jacks entering the store. All this is possible, as I have said above, if there is extra floor space available at the store.
Another point to be considered is the stock checks (Cycle counts) that need to be carried out to get the correct stock picture due to misplaced stock. A customer might have picked an item and later decide not to buy it, placing it back in a location different from its designated location in the store. Such stock checks would help in arriving at the correct quantity of the item, especially when its location needs to be replenished with the right quantity.
