Efficient Warehouse with Plan For Every Part

The company has no formal warehouse concept and needs to design and plan a new raw materials warehouse at an overseas location. The starting point is best practices from existing warehouse sites, where an older product variant is currently produced. However, layouts and processes at these sites have evolved over time without documentation, creating uncertainty.

There is no solid basis for calculating new warehouse capacity or determining optimal stock placement. The available data is limited to an outdated bill of materials, local Excel-based pick lists and individual employee knowledge.

At the same time, the material supply plan is changing significantly. The new product variant involves new materials, and most suppliers must now ship goods across continents – affecting incoterms, transport methods, customs declarations, lead times, order quantities and more.

The warehouse and supply plan will be handed over to a newly established regional logistics team and must be operational before the start of production.

Based on a new bill of materials (BoM), kaastrup|andersen establishes a Plan For Every Part (PFEP) solution to collect all necessary data attributes for calculating pallet space requirements, dimensioning of racking, and optimal product placement. This includes:

• Quantity

• Pallet dimensions

• Units per pallet

• Safety and minimum stock levels

• Pick type

• Outbound routing

Approximately 70% of the data is gathered manually using a "go-look-see" approach and close cooperation with operations. The remaining data is extracted from the company’s data warehouse. All PFEP entries are continuously updated through the company’s Engineering Change Management process.

Following the warehouse layout design, the PFEP model is expanded to include data required for establishing the material supply plan, such as:

• Suppliers

• Lead times

• Minimum order quantities (MOQ)

• Collection addresses

• Refrigeration requirements

• Hazard classes

• HS codes

• Customs duties

kaastrup|andersen facilitates regular supply planning meetings involving Sourcing, Logistics, Procurement, Transport and Master Data. Materials are prioritised based on the production plan and critical delivery deadlines, while master data and production orders are continuously uploaded into the ERP system.

The warehouse achieves full three-dimensional space utilisation, with layouts designed to minimise picking routes for frequently used materials. It is also organised into specific zones by pick type, reducing floor space usage and meeting all applicable safety standards.

The warehouse calculation includes a complete location map for each item, taking into account heavy goods and non-standard pallet dimensions. These requirements are also reflected in the future inbound material flow mapped in the ERP system.

The design incorporates built-in scalability, enabling future growth and phased investment in racking and equipment, aligned with local productivity development.

The PFEP model is now integrated with the company’s data warehouse and forms the basis for ongoing optimisation of stock levels and shipping costs by the regional logistics team. This includes optimisation of minimum order quantities, approval of local suppliers and shipment consolidation in ISO containers – all with a focus on efficiency, delivery performance and cost control.