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Status Not under consideration
Created by Guest
Created on Apr 30, 2019

Ability to define picking capacity at order line level

This is copied over from: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=59894

What is the requested functionality

  • Picking capacity* is maintained for each fulfilment unit (STO, CDC,CPU etc) on Order Line level. The capacity roof is defined as maximum number of order lines that the unit can process in a given day or a specific time period during the day

* Picking capacity = Total processing capacity for the unit on orderline level that includes picking, packing, quality checks and handout. We don’t want to develop separate capacity buckets for picking, packaging, handout etc.   Introducing multiple capavity buckets will introduce bottlenecks and risk inclreasing the total lead-time for the customer

  • The picking capacity is considered in the delivery date promise. Both picking capacity and last mile capacity has to be available to give customer time windows
  • On single capacity bucket for all the delivery services: The capacity roof in our units will be considered for all our different orders (home delivery, to a pick-up point, click-collect etc.) with one exception and that is for customers being in the store and ordering a picking service in the store while waiting for it to be executed
  • With usage of picking capacity, fulfilment units will have better control on being able to dispatch on time, to meet the customer Promised Delivery date
  • It will increase precision in the delivery date promise and will help steer orders to fulfilment units with available capacity
  • Order level picking capacity is not accurate enough, as it will differ a lot from day to day depending on how many orderlines in average an order has. These variations gets bigger during events and promotions
  • It is the number of different articles (=order lines) you need to pick in a unit that is the capacity driver. Therefore, order line level picking capacity is a better tool to steer capacity constraints.

 

  • When the picking capacity is fully consumed, that fulfilment unit’s capacity is closed and no more orders can be promised to be processed on that day from that fulfiment unit

Example 1:

Fulfilment unit X

Order line level capacity: 1000, consumed 990

New order with 10 order lines à Can be promised to customer for that day

Next order can not be promised as all order line level capacity have been consumed

 

Why?

  • With usage of picking capacity, fulfilment units will have better control on being able to dispatch on time, to meet the customer Promised Delivery date
  • It will increase precision in the delivery date promise and will help steer orders to fulfilment units with available capacity
  • Order level picking capacity is not accurate enough, as it will differ a lot from day to day depending on how many orderlines in average an order has. These variations gets bigger during events and promotions
  • It is the number of different articles (=order lines) you need to pick in a unit that is the capacity driver. Therefore, order line level picking capacity is a better tool to steer capacity constraints.

 

Who will be responsible to administer and maintain

  • Responsible to setup and maintain the capacities will not be decentralized to the fulfilment unit itself, as modifications of capacity on one fulfilment unit will have consequences on other fulfilment units or on the delivery date presented to the customer
  • With ’availability driven’ order orchestration, any changes done in the capacity of one unit will have impact on the volume of orders to other units
  • The responsible for the overview and the maintenance of the capacities of all fulfilment units of a market will be a few users in the organisational unit called ”Fulfilment Availability and Support in the CFF”. This organization sit on market level and not on unit level.
  • "Fulfilment Availability and Support in the CFF” will be responsible for working with the different fulfilment units in the market and setting up the capacities for those units in CFB. If changes to the capacity for a unit needs to be done (planned changes or due to emergency situations like a packaging line breaking down) this group will be contacted by different units in case the capacity has to be changed
What is your industry? Retail
How will this idea be used?

It takes longer for a warehouse co-worker to pick orders which have more items. Therefore defining capacity in terms of distinct items that need to be picked will help optimise the load across warehouses.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Sep 18, 2020

    Thanks for raising this idea. We will review and update the idea as we make progress.