The before and after of our stockroom layout after moving to a bin system

So our back room at the distribution center used to be a total disaster... boxes everywhere, no rhyme or reason to where things were stored. I'm talking we'd spend 15 minutes just hunting for a specific part number. My supervisor finally got fed up last quarter and we spent a weekend switching to a simple bin and label system. Paid something like $300 for the bins and a label maker, nothing fancy. The difference is night and day honestly. Pick times went from averaging 12 minutes per order down to around 4 minutes. It's crazy what a little organization does when you have hundreds of small items flowing through. Has anyone else made the switch from chaos to bins and seen similar jumps in efficiency?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_davis20d ago

Wait, did you measure pick times before and after properly? I mean, a 66% drop just from bins seems too good to be true unless your old system was literally garbage piles.

bethcarr20d ago

Oh come on, @blair_davis. You're missing the real issue here. Nobody talks about the floor layout. If your bins are placed where workers naturally turn instead of having to walk five extra steps every single pick, that time adds up fast. I saw a warehouse cut 40% just by moving the fast movers to waist height near the packing station. The bins themselves aren't magic. It's the placement and flow that does the heavy lifting. Did anyone actually map out the travel paths before and after? That's where the real savings come from, not the containers.