Every business houses its products in a warehouse to sustain the volatility of the market, seasonal fluctuation, and competition that can adversely affect its business outcome and bottom line.

The blog is presented in a two-part series, wherein this Part-1 will provide insight into the importance of slotting and Part-2 will explore key parameters, business requirement &  benefits of efficient slotting.

In the globalized marketplace, both manufacturer and distributors across industries use warehouse. A warehouse houses thee inventories to facilitate rapid pickup and order fulfillment process, critical in response to consumer behavior. But behind this rapid pickup and order fulfillment process, stands a complex model of successful warehouse slotting that defines a company’s healthy bottom line and customer satisfaction. Irrespective of the industry, some of the similar challenges faced by any warehousing professional with regards to inventories are:

• Seasonality of products
• Space Constraints
• Surge in new items to be added
• Complex product grouping
• Product expiry

What is Slotting?

Slotting is a special feature provided by SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) that does not exist in Warehouse Management (WM). It helps in optimal storage bin determination and forms the basis of optimizing the arrangement of products within the warehouse. Slotting in SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is the process of putting/arranging goods in a warehouse in a specific way, ensuring optimal storage and picking of goods. Slotting utilizes a variety of data to determine suitable/relevant putaway control parameters. These parameters describe the storage section under which the product is to be stored, the properties that the storage bin is to have, and the putaway strategy that is to be used.

How does Slotting help?

Dynamics of the market owing to the complexity of product mix, competition, changing consumer demands, IoT, etc., have made efficiency in distribution operation from warehouse critical.

The primary reason to engage in a warehouse slotting is cut down on costs arising out of rising expenses for labor and space. Slotting helps in fine-tuning a warehouse operation and shaping its anatomy. It helps in determining the most optimal putaway parameters that ensure placement of goods in suitable bins, storage type, a storage section, and bin type for placement of goods.

Warehouse slotting is not about throwing items into any available space of the warehouse and it involves much more than that. A warehouse slotting optimization requires careful analysis of product flows, both ― inbound and outbound freight patterns. Proper slotting helps you to avoid confusion and disarray when trying to pick outbound orders. At the end of the day, outbound orders earn money for your business! This is possible only when you have proper slotting to put your inbound freight in the right place to be picked up without any delay when required.

Do not miss Part-2 of this blog post and stay tuned for the information on EWM Webinar in April 2019!

If you have any queries or would like to have a demo to implement SAP EWM, please contact us.