Distribution centres and warehouses play a crucial role in keeping supply chain and distribution networks operational. Besides operational costs, the focus is on customer service expressed in quality of service, responsiveness and flexibility. The Warehouse Physics concept wants to analyse the warehouse operation based on a concept of flows and buffers and steer it towards optimisation. With a 2-day training on this new concept, PICS Belgium and Value Chain mainly want to explain the possibilities and strengths of this concept, as well as its applicability to our Distribution Centres.
Warehouses and distribution centres are part of a logistic system. They manage the physical buffers between different processes in order to provide maximum service to the next processes in the chain, but at responsible cost levels. The warehouse process is characterised by flow and by buffers that can be very temporary (stop between two movements) or less temporary (storage). The movements are carried out by resources (machines and people) and are often time-dependent. Warehouse Physics is a concept based on buffers and flows within a closed system. The aim is to optimise flows and buffers by coordination in terms of performance and cost, in order to achieve service targets.
This concept wants to optimise the use of the warehouse and its resources, taking random and coincidental events, variability in flows and occupancy, heterogeneity, complexity and management policies and decisions into account. But always with service, inventory, throughput and lead time objectives in mind.
Warehouse operations are subject to inherent relationships which trace back to flow dynamics principles present in all flow systems. However, warehouse systems have specific characteristics which urge for special modeling attention.
Objectives and concept of Warehouse Physics:
2 days training from 9 until 17h.
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