What Is Warehouse Product Slotting?

Warehouse Product Slotting is defined as the intelligent location of product in a warehouse or distribution center for the purpose of optimizing material handling efficiency. Sometimes called inventory slotting, or profiling, it identifies the most efficient placement for each item in a distribution center or warehouse. Since each instance is unique, product slotting depends on a variety of factors.

Benefits of warehouse slotting include:

Picking Productivity
Travel time can often account for up to 60% of a picker’s daily
activity. A good product slotting strategy can reduce travel time
thereby reducing picking labor.

Efficient Replenishment
By sizing the pick face locations based upon a standard unit of
measure (case, pallet) for the product in question you can
significantly reduce the labor required to replenish the location.

Work Balancing
By balancing activity across multiple pick zones you reduce
congestion in the zones, improve material flow and reduce the total
response time for a given order or batch of orders.

Load Building
To minimize product damage, heavy products are located at the
beginning of the pick path ahead of crushable product. Product may also
be located based on case size to facilitate pallet building.

Accuracy
Similar products are separated to minimize the opportunity for picking errors.

Ergonomics
High velocity products are placed in a “golden zone” to reduce
bending and reaching activity. Heavy or oversized items are placed on
lower levels in the pick zone or placed in a separate zone where
material handling equipment can be utilized.

Pre-Consolidation
By storing and picking product by family group you may be able
reduce downstream sorting and consolidation activity. This is
particularly important in a retail environment to facilitate efficient
restocking at the stores.

The Importance of Ongoing Slotting Maintenance
Operations managers typically do a good job of slotting their
warehouse initially. Over time, however, customer demand changes,
products come and go, and before too long labor costs are way up, order
fulfillment rates are way down and response times are negatively
impacting customer service and profitability.  It is important to
continually re-slot the warehouse to keep it operating at maximum
efficiency. Some clients re-slot their highest movers (typically also
their most profitable products) on a daily or weekly basis.

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