Once it has been decided that a warehouse is to be used, the next step is to design it. Irrespective of the warehouse being a small manual operation or being a large automated facility, three key principles need to be adhered to:
- Design Criteria: This includes number of stores in the warehousing facility, height utilisation and product flow. It basically addresses the characteristics of the physical facility and product movement. The design of an ideal warehouse is limited to a single story such that there is less of movement of materials. Using elevators to accommodate such movement also takes lot of time and energy, and can be troublesome as well, as material handlers many a times start competing for less number of elevators. Warehouses, in short, should be confined to a single story. Secondly, as far as the height utilization is concerned, make sure that the design has been made such that it takes care of the usage of the cubic space available, leaving greatest use of height on each floor. Generally warehouses have ceilings going up to 20-30 feet, while the modern, automated facilities today have ceilings of up to 100 feet. Racking and other hardware can be used to store products up to the ceilings. The design of the warehouse should allow for straight product flow, regardless of the items stored or not. This indicates that materials should be received at one side of the facility, stored in the middle side, and shipped at the last side of the facility. If there is straight-line product flow, it would reduce congestion as well as confusion.
- Handling technology: This includes continuity in movement and scale economies, while it emphasises on the efficiency and effectiveness of material handling technology. Continuity in movement indicates that it is effective to have a material handler or equipment for a longer movement than having several handlers making several individual, short segments of the same movement. Going for product exchange between handlers or moving it among equipments, would only waste time and increase risks. Therefore, ensure only fewer longer movements take place in the warehouse.
- Storage Plan: The storage plan should have a particular strategy for products depending on weight and storage characteristics, including weight, volume and storage. The volume of the product is of prime concern when it comes to defining a warehouse storage plan. If there are heavy items, they should be allotted to locations low to the ground so that less of efforts and risks of heavy lifting are made. At the same time, low density or bulky products need more storage space for which high level racks can be used. It should be ensured that a proper integrated storage plan should be developed that caters to the characteristics of each product.