17 October 2021 The solution offered by the WMS promotes better space utilization and a reduction in movements. Are you suffering from a lack of space in your warehouse? Do your operators move excessively for separate orders? Is the same product allocated in distant positions, meaning it is “scattered” throughout the warehouse? If your answer to these questions is affirmative, your distribution center needs a crucial solution: inventory defragmentation. Defragmentation is nothing more than ending the storage of the same SKU in distant locations. In other words, it involves placing identical products next to each other to facilitate handling and better utilize warehouse spaces. Often, especially in manual operations, a product arrives in the warehouse and is taken to any available address. Later, the same item arrives and is taken to another available address, which may be far from the first and even worse: without considering the occupancy rate of the first address, after all, the incoming goods could occupy the same previous position (considering batch restrictions). In this case, besides compromising the occupancy rate of the warehouse, when the picker receives the order, they end up moving excessively in the warehouse to pick up the same goods allocated in different points. This means increased costs and loss of productivity. This situation can become even more complicated in the current scenario, given the complexity of the operation: increase in orders; high number of SKUs; warehouse layout; stock verticalization; multiple storage and picking modes. If the same product ends up being stored in various points of the warehouse, separation can become time-consuming and unproductive. To prevent these problems from occurring, the Warehouse Management Software, WMS, offers solutions aimed at guiding movements, optimizing resources, and most importantly, space. The system’s logic (algorithms) allows for instant evaluation of stock levels, free and occupied positions, and product characteristics, enabling the WMS to manage storage, always aiming for stock defragmentation. How is the WMS Warehouse Defragmented? The WMS was created not only to automate activities and systematize information but also to ensure the best use of warehouse resources (people, equipment, and area). To this end, the system offers a stock defragmentation solution, which evaluates product balances at addresses and checks grouping possibilities, proposing the transfer of goods to the same address. These movement suggestions are approved by the area manager, and when the system is set, a work order is generated to execute the internal movement. However, some other criteria must be evaluated before generating movements, such as controlled batch products (expiration date). In these cases, it is advisable not to mix different batches in the same position. In essence, having the list of products to be grouped, the WMS system calculates and generates movements for addresses with incomplete occupancy, suggesting product, origin position, and destination position for each activity. It is also possible for the system to suggest a new position by merging two other positions. Inventory Grouping Suggestion In many cases, the same product partially occupies two or more addresses, demonstrating improper use of storage space. With defragmentation, this merchandise starts to be located all in the same place or nearby places, freeing up space for the allocation of another item. Gains from Defragmentation We have already mentioned that the main advantage generated by stock defragmentation is the better utilization of space. But it is important to remember that this means cost reduction, as every square meter of the warehouse is valuable. Investing in good infrastructure is useless if the stock is not well organized. Moreover, excessive movement in the warehouse caused by stock fragmentation leads to a drop in productivity and poor use of employees’ and equipment’s working hours. If you want a high-performance warehouse, it is crucial to invest in tools that ensure the best use of your resources, with solutions like stock defragmentation, which is a corrective action. However, it is also important to have technologies capable of preventing the problem. Using resources that keep the stock always organized and optimized, from the moment the product is received in the warehouse, means not only gains in terms of space and productivity but also in stock accuracy, as it is much easier to count when products occupy one area compared to when they are scattered throughout the warehouse. To succeed in your intralogistics operation, your warehouse must be organized, and the work of the operators must be as productive as possible. For this, it is essential to invest in technologies that prioritize strategic space occupation, which generates gains for the operation as a whole. Why does your warehouse need inventory defragmentation? Deagor WMS per ecommerce può aiutarti!