Warehouse Slotting - Why It's Important & How To Do It

Slotting your inventory correctly is critical to maximizing your warehouse space and reducing redundant inventory handling. Analyzing your data and categorizing it for organization within your warehouse is not a one time project. Slotting should be a well established process that happens on a reoccurring (weekly, monthly, quarterly) basis.

Slotting takes some effort, but is well worth the time. When done right, slotting inventory will maximize space and increase productivity throughout your facility.

Why Is It Important to Slot Your Warehouse?

Having everything in the right location and managed within the right material handling technology can dramatically impact your productivity, space utilization and accuracy. While slotting your inventory can seem overwhelming, you don't need to tackle it all at once.

Slotting can include making simple changes that can have big impacts. For example, storing fast moving parts closest to the packing/shipping area can reduce travel time and increase overall efficiencies.

Most organization embark on a slotting journey with these goals in mind:

•    Increasing warehouse space utilization
•    Matching SKUs to the most efficient storage technology
•    Reducing redundant parts handling
•    Improving productivity through reduced walk and search time
•    Optimizing processes and workflows
•    Increasing inventory control and accuracy
•    Better ergonomics for workers

More Importantly... How To Slot Your Inventory?

Slotting starts with data, and the more data the better. It's ideal to start with at least a full year of data to include seasonality or yearly demand spikes. Inventory slotting software is available for purchase, or in some cases an Excel spreadsheet could work as well. If you are at a loss of where to start, you can also consider engaging a inventory management consultant that can make slotting recommendations specific to your operations.

The data you should look to compile when starting a slotting inititive includes:

•    SKU picking methodology
•    Number of pallets, cartons and broken case eaches of each SKU
•    SKU hits (the number of times a product is picked)
•    SKU numbers and descriptions
•    Pick quantities (number of SKUs picked per order)
•    SKUs that are frequently picked together
•    SKU sizes and weights
•    Total SKU quantity, reorder point and reorder quantity

Once you have your data ready the real slotting work can begin. Check out this white paper for details on these next steps: Optimizing Order Fulfillment

1. Classify Inventory
2. Match SKUs with Technology
3. Check the fulfillment process
4. Slot your inventory
5. Map processes and workflows
6. Integrate systems to maximize visibility

Slotting should be an on-going process of gathering data, analyzing and making adjustments to maximize efficiencies.