Enhancement in Productivity of Order Picking Operations: A Case Study of Plumbing Equipment Manufacturer in Thailand

Our research aimed to enhance productivity of order picking operations for a plumbing equipment manufacturer in Thailand as a case study. Its main problem was spending much more time than other operations to find finished products. This was because finished goods were put away on inappropriate locations in a warehouse. Namely, finished goods whose turnover was fast was not classified and not located close to entrances and exits of the warehouse. We accordingly collected, gathered, and analyzed three data groups. The first data group included stock keeping units (SKUs) and their quantities in the warehouse. They were used for selecting ball taps as the fastest turnover. The second data group consisted of racking layout and locations, along with ABC theory to assign fixed zones and fixed locations for 77 SKUs of the ball taps. The third data group was order picking procedures to diagram logical data flows for evaluating order picking time and productivity of operators. As a result, the appropriate locations for putting away all the ball tap SKUs could shorten order picking time by 32.50% and enhance productivity of operators by 48.17%