Moving and Storage Concepts
Autor: Logistica e o Futuro | Publicado: 2011-11-28T19:00:00-02:00


&nbsp;Handling Systems, Warehousing and Distribution.


Consumers when they go to the store shelves hoping to find the products they need, regardless of whether farmers are 10 or 2,500 miles away.
This is the work of logistics: to provide availability of products, where and when needed. Often, this means coordinating the flow of products from multiple suppliers scattered around the country and increasingly dispersed throughout the world, so that they come to the end customers in the most distant regions.
A basic question of logistics management is how to structure delivery systems capable of cost effectively meet the markets geographically distant sources of production, offering service levels ever higher in terms of stock availability and service time.
In this context, attention turns to the storage facilities and how they can contribute effectively to meet the goals established in service level. The functionality of these facilities will depend on the structure of distribution adopted by the company. We can classify them into two groups:• Structures staggered - a typical distribution network spread has one or more central warehouses and a set of warehouses or distribution centers close to the advanced market areas.• Structures Direct - are distribution systems where the products are shipped from one or more central warehouses directly to customers.

As we shall see, the direct distribution systems can also use facilities in between, not to keep stock, but to allow a rapid flow of products combined with low transportation costs. These are the type installations Transit Point, Cross-Docking and Merge in Transit. Its application is relatively recent, and contrasts with the traditional view of the function of storage facilities.

Advanced Distribution Centers


The distribution centers are typical of advanced distribution systems installments, in which the stock is placed in various links of a chain. Your goal is to enable rapid service the needs of customers in a given geographical area far from producing centers. To provide utility over time, stocks move up to a point close to customers and requests are then served by this center advanced from its own stock.
Besides seeking a speedy, advanced distribution centers enable the achievement of economies of transport, since these centers operate as cargo consolidators. Instead of meeting a group of customers directly from central stores, which could involve the movement of fractional loads over great distances, the use of advanced distribution centers allows receiving large shipments consolidated and therefore with lower transport costs . Transport to the customer can be done at fractional loads, but this is done in short distance moves.
When used by multiple vendors, distribution centers have advanced additional advantages. In addition to getting consolidation in the transport of transfer, you can also do the final delivery of a consolidated basis, when the customer requests to multiple suppliers are combined.
For customers the benefits are also great because they receive on a single charge requests that would otherwise be made by several vehicles. This is the typical case of distribution centers or retail chains controlled by logistics operators that serve various industries.

Inventory Costs in the tiered system


It appears then that the staggered distribution structures facilitate cargo consolidation, resulting in lower transport costs. However, its effect on inventory levels and the costs of storage should be properly evaluated.
The decentralization of inventories, typical tiered systems, increases the amount of inventory needed to meet the desired levels of availability, also making their management more complex. Due to uncertainties caused by the division of the demand in regional areas, the maintenance of the entire line of advanced products in each center is subject to stock-outs. Thus, the initial goal of providing fast service and high availability can be affected by the occurrence of incomplete applications. Besides the risk of stock-outs are also higher risks of obsolescence due to the strategy adopted in anticipation of demand.
One way to minimize the risk to the maintenance of stocks in the vanguard is the selective storage of stock. In this case, the stocks of products with low turnover rates, greater uncertainty in demand and / or with higher added value are kept in one or more central facilities. The products most traded, with more stable demand and / or lower value may have their stocks advanced as the commitment to advance these stocks has lower risk.
Depending on the company and the characteristics of their products and market, the most appropriate solution may lead to the centralization of most or all of the product line. These companies tend to adopt the direct delivery systems, where orders are filled from central facilities.
These systems, depending on the distances and the need of customers to serve them within a certain time window, are much more dependent on reliable and fast shipping. Moreover, unlike the staggered structures, systems generate direct irregular movements of fractional loads. Thus we see that the potential for direct adoption of systems is limited by high transportation costs.
The objective of enabling direct delivery systems, has been increasingly common use of facilities for intermediate load break. These facilities enable consolidation methods of transport that are not based on maintaining high levels of stocks advanced and are compatible with a strategy of rapid response and high level of flexibility. They allow, in some cases, transportation costs are direct systems as low as the staggered system.


Transit Point


The Transit Point type installations are very similar to advanced distribution centers, but do not keep stocks. The Transit Point is located to meet a particular market area away from the central warehouses and operates as a transit facility, receiving shipments consolidated and separate them for local delivery to individual customers.
A basic feature of Transit Point type systems is that the products have already received the targets defined, or already are pre-allocated to customers and can be immediately dispatched to local delivery. No waiting for placing orders. This is a fundamental difference compared to traditional storage facilities, where the requests are served from your inventory.
The Transit Point type installations are structurally simple, requiring low investment in your installation. Its management is made easier because they are not executed stocking and picking activities that require high level of managerial control. Its maintenance cost is therefore relatively low.
The Transit Points keep the same ratio of cost of transport to distribution centers advanced by allowing the movement in large distances to be made with consolidated cargo, resulting in low transportation costs.
The operation of the Transit Point, however, is dependent on the existence of sufficient volume to enable the transport of consolidated cargo with a regular frequency. When there is no scale to make daily deliveries, for example, procedures may be necessary as the scheduled delivery, where requests for a geographic area are served on certain days of the week.


Cross-Docking


The facilities like cross-docking operate under the same format as the Transit Points, but are characterized by involving multiple suppliers serving customers in common. Retail chains are natural candidates for use of this system and, in fact, there are numerous examples of the extensive use of cross-docking in this sector.
Carts come complete with multiple vendors and then begins a process of separating the applications, with the movement of the cargo receiving area to the shipping area. In cross-docking systems are used automated bar code readers that identify the source and destination of each pallet. Thus, the pallets are automatically routed to their docks via conveyor and loaded into vehicles that will make the local delivery. They leave with a full load, consisting of products from multiple vendors.While operating procedure, the cross-docking has been used informally for some time now for various companies in their traditional warehouses. The cross-docking operation occurs, for example, when management has sought to dispatch a request for emergency or seeks to fill pending orders through products that are received before they are directed to the storage area. The management then diverts these products to the shipping docks so that they are shipped as soon as possible. This procedure, while offering advantages to minimize the internal drives to stores, only takes advantage of the benefits resulting from cross-docking concept.Although it is operationally simple, so there is success in cross-docking operation is necessary a high level of coordination among the participants (suppliers, carriers) made possible by the intensive use of information systems such as electronic transmission of data and identification of products by code toolbar. Moreover, it is of fundamental importance to the existence of storage management software (WMS) to coordinate the intense and rapid flow of goods between the docks.The ability to advance planning and strict compliance allow the passage of the stock installation is as short as possible. When there is little coordination, a lack of synchronization between the proceeds of the charges, you need more space to keep the stock and vehicles may have to wait longer to have its full charge.
The cross-docking facilities that operate with high efficiency have only one platform to the receiving docks on one side and the other shipping docks. The only cross platform products for shipment. There is, therefore, need large areas for the stock in transit and use of docks and vehicles is much higher.
This does not mean that this is the only way to cross-docking operation. It is also possible to use the cross-docking "future", where the products are not to be received immediately moved to the local delivery vehicles, but remain in a waiting area for loading. The more "future" is the cross-docking, the greater the need for space to hold.

Merge in Transit.


The Merge in Transit is an extension of the concept of cross-docking systems combined with the "Just in Time" (JIT). It has been applied to the distribution of products of high added value, made up of multi-component that has its parts produced in different specialized plants. A clear example are the workstations, consisting of CPUs, monitors and keyboards.
Traditionally, the components are consolidated into central warehouses and shipped to customers from their inventories. This scheme, as well as lead to redundant drives, has a high inventory cost and a high risk of obsolescence given the high perishability of high technology products.
The operation Merge in Transit seeks to coordinate the flow of components, managing their lead times for production and transport, they are to be consolidated in nearby markets to consumers in their hour of need, without implying intermediate stocks. Coordination needs are much more stringent than the traditional cross-docking systems, and therefore use the state of the art in terms of information systems for tracking and control flows.


R. Reigle Fernandes