Zoning in the warehouse

During its “life path” in the warehouse, the goods go through a number of stages:

receiving, storing, assembling, packing, shipping, etc.

It is extremely important that at each stage the goods are where they are supposed to be.

It is unacceptable that:

• goods that have not yet been accepted end up on the storage shelf,
• an unassembled order ends up in packaging,
• an unshipped order ends up in a truck.

To avoid such mistakes, the warehouse is divided into functional zones:

• receiving zone,
• zone storage,
• sorting area,
• packaging,
• shipping, etc.

Division can be:

• conditional — when zones are formed naturally, without obvious boundaries,
• physical — with the help of racks, walls, markings, signs and other visual landmarks.

Often about this “it seems like everything is clear anyway” — and the topic remains underestimated:
zones arise spontaneously, there is not enough space, “everything works anyway”.

But it is competent zoning that is the basis of reliable and safe logistics.
If you only if you are launching a warehouse or planning to redesign it, pay special attention to zoning. This is what affects everything: from the speed of assembly to the number of errors and losses.

Zones should be planned not "by intuition", but based on the movement of goods (flow of goods).

Earlier, I gave a standard scheme: acceptance → storage → assembly → packaging → shipment.

This can be your basis, or you can develop your own, adapted to:

• warehouse features,
• product specifics,
• actual employee routes.