Improved Order Picking at HJI
In Spring 2017, HJI Supply Chain Solutions, a Louisville based logistics services provider, approached the Logistics and Distribution Institute (LoDI) at University of Louisville to assess operations of one of their facilities located in eastern Louisville. The facility performs value-added warehousing for a major automobile producer. The objective of the project was to assess current operations and identify short-term and long-term opportunities for improving overall service performance and increasing space utilization.
Two of LoDI’s graduate students, Parag Siddique and Salahuddin Ayuby, spent six weeks in the facility to observe the processes, collect data, and ultimately design an improved process and facility layout. They collected both quantitative and qualitative data from HJI’s warehouse management system, conducted extensive time studies, and interviewed managers, supervisors and workers. The students developed value-stream maps for all the major processes in the facility to help identify connections between information and product flow, eliminate wasted effort and highlight opportunities for process improvement. From these value-stream maps, they learned that the greatest opportunities for improvement were order picking and material handling. Using applied quantitative techniques including mathematical models and statistical methods, they calculated process throughput, pick density, picking productivity, storage utilization, and labor utilization. Based on these findings, they made both short- and long-term recommendations that HJI could implement to significantly increase throughput capacity, accuracy, and service performance.
In summer 2017, HJI requested LoDI to conduct a follow-on study to determine feasibility of the new design recommendations. Another LoDI graduate student, Lee Evans, developed a discrete-event simulation model to compare the existing and proposed designs. The simulation model validated the new design, which, in turn, gave HJI the confidence to implement the new system. Specific performance details are proprietary, but using the work of this team of LoDI engineers, HJI implemented the new process in their warehouse in summer 2018 and is extremely pleased with the results.