Dynamic Put-away & It's Benefits

What is Dynamic Put Away?

Dynamic put away is the opposite of the tidier, more static inventory management techniques that you’ll find in smaller operations or those that still use manual inventory management processes. Under a dynamic put away model, items coming into the warehouse or fulfillment center are stowed anywhere they can fit.

That’s all there is to it.

Well, that and a system of barcodes, handheld barcode scanners, and highly intelligent inventory software. When an item is ordered from a dynamic put away warehouse, the order triggers a set of operations from machine learning to business logic that beautifully orchestrates the optimal route to pick that item or items. Items are always sorted and picked in a seemingly random fashion, but always tracked under the watchful eye of the central inventory management software.

On the backend, that software is automatically updating and maintaining optimal inventory levels and making the most efficient use of employee resources and warehouse space. Unique barcodes for each item, lot of items, and shelf space are the lifeblood that constantly keeps both inventory management software and warehouse employees happy and productive.

Fast, agile, and scalable—the benefits of dynamic put away

Impossible, you say? Prone to error? On the contrary. Under the right circumstances, dynamic put away actually uses warehouse space more efficiently. It’s something akin to agile software development, where the closest best resources stow and pick items, all of it controlled and optimized by software.

It helps drastically reduce inventory errors, too. Dynamic put away can dramatically improve your inventory per square footage, improve inventory accountability and visibility, and help ensure that the right items ship.

It also makes warehouse employees more efficient. Why schlep all the way across your 50k+ sq ft warehouse to pick the leather iPhone 8 case when there’s already another picker close by? What if there was a system that knew a better route to that same item PLUS pick up any other orders along the way? Inventory management software can handle this automatically so warehouse employees don’t waste time and energy.

How Amazon does it

There doesn’t seem to be much that’s random about Amazon, which ships more than a billion items a year and whose warehouse facilities can be larger than a dozen football fields. But “random stow” is exactly what you’ll find inside an Amazon fulfillment center.

One look inside one of the e-commerce giant’s warehouses will reveal Lady’s Speed Stick next to copper-plated pans—a family pack of BBQ sunflower seeds next to the first season of That 90’s Swat Cats Show on Blu-Ray. On the floor, a bustling, ever-steady flow of flesh-and-bone employees and high-capacity robots stow, pick and move inventory around the clock.

At the end of the line, an automated sorting system packages, labels, and sorts items before sending them through a maze of conveyor belts to the trucks that they’ll be shipped in.

It’s chaotic, it’s seemingly random, and it’s the inventory management technique that has allowed Amazon to continue scaling in the face of unprecedented consumer demand.