LSC801 Warehouse Report: Analysis of Jim Olsen Storage Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a warehouse scenario for Jim Olsen Storage, a business selling tiles. It examines various aspects of warehouse operations, including layout, storage equipment, and procedures. The report explores the importance of technology, such as automated guided vehicles, automated inventory systems, and radio frequency identification, to enhance efficiency and safety. It discusses best practices for receiving goods, warehouse layout, and product placement, including cross-docking techniques. Furthermore, the report delves into order-picking technologies and the benefits of warehouse management systems, concluding with a return on investment analysis and recommendations for Jim Olsen Storage. The report emphasizes the need for a well-organized and technologically advanced warehouse to ensure the safety and accessibility of goods, ultimately leading to improved operational efficiency and profitability.

Running head: WAREHOUSE REPORT 1
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A report to Better Jim Olsen Storage warehouse
Introduction
Every business that deals with tangible goods requires a good warehouse that will be able
to handle the good safely. A good warehouse should be equipped with modern technology to
enhance easier and effective storage of goods. The processes and techniques used while storing
goods in the warehouse should be easy. The process of retrieving the goods from the warehouse
should be convenient to avoid confusion and loss of goods. It is complex to manage a warehouse
that deals with goods from various businesses. A commercial warehouse should be in a position
to guarantee the safety of the commodity stored in the premise. To be able to do this, commercial
warehouses are supposed to adopt better ways of dealing with goods belonging to their
customers.
The best technology in a warehouse
To stay competitive and make a good profit at a cheap cost Jim storage must adopt good
modern technology. In choosing this technology one must make a choice that will improve the
efficiency of work, reduce the cost of maintenance and fasten operations in the warehouse
(Robinson, 2016). These technologies must ensure that materials and goods in a warehouse flow
effortlessly. Making a decision in the technology that the storehouse will use is a crucial thing to
be made by the management (Jacobus et al., 2015). Ease of storing equipment in a warehouse is
an important thing that should be considered in choosing a type of technology to use. The type of
technology used should be one enhancing the safety of the goods stored.
One of the best modern technologies that are convenient to use in any warehouse is the
automatic guided vehicles. The automatic guided vehicles have proven to be safe and quick
compared to the manual labor methods of storing goods. Automatic Guided Vehicles enhance
control and automation of the entire process of receiving goods in a warehouse (Chase Reeves,
2019). Automated Guided Vehicles carry out specific functions within the warehouses at ease as
they can be controlled easily and at a distance.
To be able to make inventory and process data in a warehouse in a fast, accurate and
timely manner, use of automated inventory programs to be able to count inventory in automatic
ways is the best method of ensuring that the data collected is accurate and reliable (Barcode,
2016). The automated inventory system will be able to record a large number of orders delivered
in a day. The automated inventory systems will be useful during the receiving of goods in the
warehouse from various sources (Atieh et al., 2016). The automated inventory system ensures
quality control in the handling of the transactions of goods brought in and out of a warehouse.
The organization should also consider using a radio frequency identification to reduce the
risks of losing items in a warehouse. The system involves using an electromagnet field that tags
each item and ensures the tracking of items even at a far distance. A radio frequency builds and
ensures the safety of products in the stock (Rouse, 2019). The system will work very well in
ensuring that all the goods and items in an organization are safe and also will reduce the
paperwork in the warehouse something that often delays operation in the warehouse. A paperless

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and pick system should be incorporated to reduce the need to use enlist and marking system of
orders (Hollis, 2017). The methods of data keeping in papers and files are tedious, waste time
and also cause wastage of space in the warehouse. The organization should, therefore, invest in a
system that is less bulky and more reliable in the use of resources.
Best practices and procedures to be used in a warehouse
Receiving goods in a warehouse is the first and one of the most important activities in a
warehouse. Before any goods are received from the clients. The management of the storehouse
should be informed so as to ensure that there is adequate clean space in the warehouse. The
clients must provide details of the quantity of the items they are bringing when the goods will be
delivered and the actual type of goods that will be delivered. Upon the arrival of goods, it is the
role of the storekeeper to supervise the quality and quantity of goods to check whether they
conform with the one indicated in the delivery notes (Larry, 2009). It is on the best interest of the
warehouse to refuse any goods of poor quality delivered in the warehouse. The storekeeper of the
warehouse should be able to perform an administrative check on the documentation of the good
to ensure there is the conformity of these goods with what was on the delivery notes.
Warehouse layout and storage equipments
Warehouse layout will depend largely on the types of good stored in the warehouse. A
good layout will concentrate on reducing the travel distance between storage and retrieval and
hence be able to enhance efficiency. In the case of Jim, there are different owners who may bring
their goods to be stored in the warehouse. The Warehouse should have a layout consisting of
three zones.
The warehouse should be in its own capacity to be able to define the storage zones areas
in the warehouse. On the case of Jim's warehouse whereby different goods are to be received
from different business premises, the warehouse should be separated according to the type of
goods to be stored (Hansl et al., 2012). In the warehouse, there should be obviously the Arrival
zone where the storekeepers will inspect all the goods, the packaging zone whereby the
packaging and repackaging of goods will be done, the delivery zone and the storage zone where
the stock will be finally stored.
Placement of goods according to their type and ownership
In the storage of goods, consideration of the types of goods that one is storing in the
warehouse should be done. In the case of Jim's storage, the grocery and paints commodities are
commodities which cannot be stored in the same zones (Mars et al., 2011). To enhance the safety
of the commodity that Jim is storing he must be keen in ensuring that the two types of goods do
not mix and are at a safe distance to ensure the safety of the commodities. The bathroom tiles
that have the highest turnover rate must also be stored in areas which are accessible. These will
ensure that the tiles are easily movable in and away from the warehouse.

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Cross-docking
This technique is used by warehouses in order to speed the throughput of products. The
technique involves consolidating products in the inbound process and taking them directly to the
dispatching zone. Cross-docking is important in helping the product to move faster in the
warehouse. Coordination between inbound and outbound movements is important to enable
quick movement of goods. Cross-docking requires the use of proper technology while
communicating so as to ensure there is fast movement and response by the workers in the
warehouse. Jim’s warehouse should consider fast movement of goods that they sell to the retail
area.
In storing goods, one has to be careful in ensuring that once you keep the good in the
warehouse there will be no need for relocating or retrieving the resources before time. The
consequences of storing goods in the wrong place in the warehouse are too expensive as it has an
impact on the entire storage process (Intralogistics, 2017). The location of a particular type of
good in a warehouse depends on the allocation strategy that the warehouse decides to use.
Movement strategy is also a consideration to make while deciding where to store your products
in a warehouse. The management of the warehouse should ensure that there is coordination
between the welfare and movement strategy.
Order picking technologies
There are a variety of technologies that warehouses can use to pick orders within the
warehouses. A warehouse may choose to combine various methods that will assist them to pick
orders. These methods include paper picking which entails very little system support, Pick by
label technology which is more accurate. Barcode scanning with a gun as a technology of
picking which is more accurate and is wholly paperless. Wearable scanners as a technology is
more productive and at the same time, it is faster and more accurate. Voice picking and voice
picking plus finger scanning are more accurate but not more accurate than the put to light types
of technologies (Richard & Grinstead,2016). RFID is a very accurate order picking the
technology that deals with goods of high value and is the most productive picking technology
that can be used in order picking.
Benefits of the management system to Jims warehouse
Use of Automated guided vehicles in the organization will be of great benefits to the
warehouse as it will ensure that operations in the warehouse are quick. The use of the machines
will also help the organization in saving the cost that could have been made in employing manual
laborers to carry out packaging and movement services (Benevides, 2018). The machines are
also more accurate and they are unlikely to perform mistakes that can be easily done by human
beings.
The storage organization practices that are more keen on storing the products according
to their qualities and accessibility will serve right in ensuring that the products remain safe and
easily accessible when needed. Such management systems will ensure increased transparency
within the organization and also between the organization and the clients keeping their goods in

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the warehouse (Davies, 2019). Keeping data in automated inventory forms is more accurate than
when the data is in books or files. This move will also enhance the saving of space and time of
staff.
Warehouse management systems
Warehouse management software offers a big relief to warehouses by reducing the
expense of labor and also the warehouse will be able to take control of its inventories. It will be
easier for the warehouse to perform its counts and monitor goods accurately. The system has
tools that enable receiving, sorting and packing of goods in a warehouse in an optimal manner.
Standalone systems are one of the best warehouse management systems that offer inventory
management systems it does not incorporate other warehouse management services but it deals
with the inventory control systems. Another common warehouse management system would be
the supply chain module system a system that helps the users in managing everything that goes
in warehousing from receiving of goods up to the time of exit from the warehouse. (Lyon &
Furse, 2017)The warehouse management system that will be able to fasten the operation and at
the same time improve the accuracy of the inventory control will have an impact on the net profit
enjoyed by the organization.
Return on investment of the warehouse management system
While calculating the rate of return on investment of a warehouse management system one must
evaluate the workflow process from receiving, quality control, inventory accounts, and picking
and shipping processes (Riedman, 2015). In Jims warehouse the warehouse management system
rate of return will be
ROI=Net profit/Total investment*100
$10000 production saved +$5000 accuracy saved+5000 loss saved=$20000
$20000-$16000= Net profit $4000
$4000/16000*100=25%
Rate on investment is therefore 25%
Recommendation to Jim’s warehouse
Jim’s warehouse should be able to employ the use of technology that is much faster and
convenient in receiving goods in the warehouse, such technology would include the use of
automated guided vehicles that are more fast and efficient. In terms of recording information
about good stored, Jim warehouse should consider the use of a more secure method such as the
automated inventory system which reduces paperwork and at the same time is more accurate.
The method that the warehouse is currently using to label its shipment is not the best and should
be replaced by the use of radio frequency identification a system that will ensure that there is
proper tracking of all the items in the warehouse. Jim warehouse should use a better method of
checking the security of the items in the warehouse. The warehouse should be only accessible by

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the management and the authorized persons. Jim warehouse should also consider storing goods
according to their rate of turnover so as to increase the accessibility of items with high turnover.
Conclusion
Storing different goods in a warehouse requires the management of the warehouse to be able to
adapt to new technology, best practices, and procedures of storing and releasing goods in a
warehouse. Adopting new technology that is accurate and efficient so as to make work easier.
Modern warehouses should consider the best technology which is affordable. Any warehouse
should also make sure that it uses methods of recording goods delivered and released from the
warehouses to enhance accuracy. In storing goods in a warehouse the most important thing to
consider is the safety of the goods stored there. Therefore, every organization should have
mechanisms of ensuring the safety of the items that are in the warehouse.

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