WAREHOUSING ON A MOST EFFICIENT SCALE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29974, 8 November 1962, Page 24

WAREHOUSING ON A MOST EFFICIENT SCALE

The design of the new IGA warehouse, together with the up-to-date goodsmoving equipment therein, add up to one thing—facilitating the handling of the stock.

The aims are—to receive the stock as quickly as possible, to store it as efficiently as possible, and to prepare it for a speedy despatch when required. The reputation of the firm depends solely upon the efficiency with which it can fulfil orders, and all amenities are geared to that end. Let us examine the passage of goods through the warehouse ...

Goods come into the warehouse from all parts of the country. As yet, the organisation has not gone to the lengths of preparing its own airstrip and working a squadron of cargo planes, but incoming goods are off-loaded in one of two ways—

1. By truck to the inwards loading dock.

2. By rail to the company’s own siding. This rail siding goes right into the Hornby warehouse, and has proved a great cost and time-saver in the introduction of goods from all parts of the Dominion. Formerly, the company had to uplift the goods from Lyttelton, or from the Christchurch railway station, by truck, and take them to its former depot in Coventry Street. Investigation proved that it was cheaper, as well as saving a great deal of time, to move the waggons right up to the back door of the Hornby warehouse.

Sometimes the goods arrive at the warehouse already stacked on their pallets, or are speedily so stacked as wooden trays. If not, they soon as they come off the are of two standard sizes, wagon or track. The pallets and the storemen in this department are guided by a master plan, regarding the best way to stack cartons of a certain size. By now, they almost know this plan by heart, and can move directly into the stacking process as soon as they know what size cartons they are dealing with. Each pallet is given a number—this numebr corresponding to the code number of the type of stock which is on the pallet. The pallets are placed on to the towveyor system—small trolleys which are moved around the warehouse on a continuous underground chain. The towveyor is easily attached to the chain, by simply lowering a belt

and pushing the trolley into position. Disengaging at the end of the journey is just as simple. The towveyor chain runs past a long row of rack. In We aisles between each pair of racks are the storemen, inspecting the passing trolleys to see if the number on the front corresponds to the number on any of the group of racks and shelves under their control. If the storeman sees one of his numbers, he simply moves out and disengages the trolley concerned, and pushes it into his aisle. Later a fork-lift truck will come along and lift the whole pallet—tray and contents, into position in the appropriate rack. The pallets are designed so that they can be easily stored on top of one another, and thus maximum storage is used. As the purpose of a warehouse is to receive goods, to store them and 1 to despatch them, it Is

of course most important that the storing be done as efficiently as posible. The warehouse is limted in space, and there is no room for inefficient and wasteful storage methods which do not utilise that space to the optimum advantage.

The outgoing of the goods is, of course, at the request of a grocer who is a member of the organisation. If possible, he will be taking complete pallets of products, and thus his order would be speedily filled again with the use of the fork-lift truck, the towveyor, and a storeman to carry out the human element of the operation—identifying

the correct numbers on the shelving. Perhaps we wiM in the future see the automaton fork-lift with built-in radar to identify the appropriate signals coming from the top of each stack of goods. This system of course works at its best when dealing with fairly large orders, but the organisation has also to cater for the needs ot the smaller family grocer who may not want to buy the comparatively large quantities of each product at the same time. Just as the racks cater for the , bulk-fill carton lots in orders, so does a smaller section of the warehouse cater for the smaller orders from its “back-fill racks.” These racks slope downwards from the rear, with requirements taken from the broken carton at the front, and new cartons being inserted et the rear as the need arises. This has one important function—automatic stock rotation. The oldest goods are always at the front of the rack and are always the next to be taken. This is a most important aspect of any stock handling, to ensure that ••FIFO” —“first in, first out” is maintained, especially with perishable goods.

Together with the major portion of the warehouse — that taken up wi th grocery lines and foodstuffs—there are the specialist departments. Prominent among these is the pharmacy section. The I.GA. organisation in Canterbury caters for no less than 150 chemists in adition to the numerous grocers and other clients.

lines. AU the member grocer has to do is to note the quantity sought alongside each of the items for which he requires replenishments. On reaching the office, the necessary extensions are made (the prices are alongside each item in the books) and the order book becomes also an invoice and a delivery docket for the grocer. Orders are filled once in each week for each member

Other Sections In addition to the pharmacy section there are the hardware and glassware, tobacco and linen sections. Each of these constantly carries a wide range of goods for all the members of the organisation. In addition to the huge value of cigarettes and tobacco that are sold through member grocers, I.G.A. also supplies over 70 tobacconists in its area, Much of the hardware, glassware and linen goes to other clients, including institutions in the company’s area. The I.G.A. grocer has few difficulties in the ordering of his goods, as he has at his disposal all the facilities of this vast warehouse. In all parts of the warehouse, and the office, one comes into contact with the blue I.G.A. grocery order books. These are filled in weekly by the grocer, and he sends them into the warehouse as the basis for his weekly order. Wide Range The order book Includes no less than 40 pages of lists of commodities embracing many thousand different

of the organisation, with Mondays and Tuesdays being the busiest days at the warehouse. Friday, a busy day in the shops, themselves, is a slack day at the warehouse as the grocers have stocked up earlier in the week.