Getting the balance right
February 1st 2010 As the dynamics of the cold storage market change, operators must balance picking
needs against storage demands says Index Procon md Roger Young
Index Procon is a storage solutions provider operating across
the logistics industry and managing director Roger Young
says priorities in the cold storage market have shifted as the
market has developed in recent years.
"Historically cold storage meant long term
storage but operators are now a more integral part
of the supply chain to supermarkets and are dealing
with much smaller orders and much greater frequency,"
says Young.
He argues this means the
ability to fill the cube of the
building completely as they
did with pallet convertors or
drive-in racking in the past is now unfeasible as
operators have a lot more personnel carrying out
picking of individual orders. Storage companies are
refrigerating the same volume but not storing anything
like the same number of units.
"Rather than pallet in and pallet out, a lot of the
time it is pallet in and case out," Young adds. "It's
about finding a compromise solution - to keep the
density up but still be able to pick as many orders as
possible."
A number of solutions can be specified. Young says powered
mobile pallet racking can offer more selectivity, but this will not
necessarily lend itself when picking rates are
high.
"You could start to look at making
good use of the bulk at high level with
things like live storage or push back
racking. However, such is the intensity of
picking that some operators have gone
back to conventional reach trucks and racking
with something like 30% space
occupancy as opposed to the 80 or 90%
many are used to."
Index Procon says each location should be assessed to
ascertain area available, how many pallets go in and out, how
many orders need to be picked plus other constraints and then
a workable solution can be specified.
Young concludes: "The key thing is getting a trade-off for the
revenue added by extra picking against money lost in the lower
volume stored.We do a lot of sourcing in the market to get the
best and most cost effective solution for a given problem. No
one manufacturer can deliver it
all." More articles from Index Direct Ltd: | 
