Technological and Organizational Innovation in Warehousing Process – Research over Workload of Staff and Efficiency of Picking Stations
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Technická Univerzita v Liberci
Technical university of Liberec, Czech Republic
Technical university of Liberec, Czech Republic
Abstract
In their response to the necessity to meet the demands of customers, the enterprises are forced to reduce the time of order delivery. Today, almost every enterprise has its own warehouse facilities or outsources warehouse processes. Therefore, the contemporary warehouses play a significant role in production and service networks. The maintenance of high efficiency of warehouse processes determines the competitive functioning of enterprises. Continuous progress in this area sets the pace for these changes. Nevertheless, despite of the desire to reduce costs while increasing the efficiency of the warehouse process, you cannot forget about employees. In addition to efficiency and the level of generated costs, a warehouse employee is one of the factors that not only affects the shape of the logistics system in an enterprise, but also affects all links in the supply chain. This study is intended to research the impact of technological and organizational innovation implemented in the warehousing process on the efficiency of picking processes and staff workload on picking stations. The research was performed with warehouse simulation models developed in FlexSlim 3D Simulation Software. The simulated warehouses represent the warehouses in B2C (Business to Customer) logistics. They are about the layout of bag-type warehouse and the size and shape of the assortment varies. The size of storage zone is the same for all three warehouses. In these warehouses the assortment is arranged randomly. For each model, several simulations have been performed. The conducted research has shown that the results of technological and organizational innovation implemented in the warehousing process should be in general evaluated positively. Both the warehouse productivity and the picking process efficiency increased. The staff workload decreased, which is reflected in greater work comfort for a man and which supports implementation of control activities. However, it should be noted that implementation of the technological and organizational innovation in the warehousing processes adopted in various enterprises changes the labor market, thus it is possible that some problems with maintaining current employment levels will occur.
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Warehousing, order-picking, automation, simulation, innovation, labor productivity
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1212-3609