Portrait of a Best-in-Class Warehouse

In its recent study of more than 550 warehousing and distribution operations, analyst firm Aberdeen Group determined that the top pressure driving warehouse improvement at companies deemed "best-in-class" is the high cost and low availability of warehouse labor. While companies said to be "average" or "laggards" are hard pressed just to meet their customer service objectives, the best-in-class firms have moved beyond this struggle and are now concentrating on operational efficiency.

So how does a company achieve this "best-in-class" status? Aberdeen Group offers the following PACE (pressures, actions, capabilities and enablers) scenario to explain the process that goes from identifying a problem to identifying the solution.

Pressures

• High cost and/or low availability of warehouse labor

Actions

• Improve warehouse throughput
• Reduce or contain warehouse labor costs

Capabilities

• Bin-level location management
• Paperless receiving
• Real-time put-away and stock moves
• Order picking with mobile devices
• Incremental cycle-counting

Enablers

• Warehouse management software
• Wireless networking in the warehouse
• Mobile warehouse devices (handheld computers, bar code scanners, wearable computers)

Source: Aberdeen Group

See Also

• Global Logistics is on the Move
• Supply Chain Solutions
• The Chemical Supply Chain: By The Numbers
• Bookshelf: Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR Model, 2nd Edition
• U.S. Military Launches Supply Chain Partnership
• The Five Myths of Import Compliance
• Supply Chain Spending Spree
• MIT Launches Supply Chain Center in Latin America