What Warehouse Modeling Software Should You Use?

If you’re looking to design your own warehouse, you should start by considering these questions:

• Is your warehouse full of pallets sitting in the aisle instead of up in the racks?
• Do you need a bigger facility to cater for the forecast growth of your business over the medium to long term?
• Is your warehouse operation inefficient?
• Does your warehouse storage and layout design desperately need optimisation?
• Is your current warehouse lease ending, leaving you to decide between staying put and moving to a new facility?

If you answer yes to any of the above questions, it’s probably time to give your warehousing requirements a thorough review. That being said, it’s not always easy to know where to begin, so here are a few tips to help you get a well-structured, methodical warehouse review/redesign process under way (of course, you can always use our warehouse design services if you need an expert opinion).

Essential Steps to Using Warehouse Modelling Software for Design

1) Understand the Design Objectives and Constraints

The first step in your review should be to determine and prioritise the objectives for your warehouse facility and operation. It’s also important to document any constraints that will impact your plans to meet those objectives.

For example, your company’s objective might be to achieve maximum operational productivity, to improve customer service, or perhaps to minimise capital expenditure. If you don’t plan to commission a new warehouse on a greenfield site, your plans might be constrained by the characteristics of an existing facility.

A clear understanding of objectives and constraints will provide you with the starting point for your design review, so it’s important to get them documented and to make sure all stakeholders are aware of them.

2) Know Your Operational Profile and Requirements

In order to maximise the benefits of your warehouse review, you should be completely familiar with the characteristics of all products that are to be stored.

The most important SKU characteristics to understand are as follows:

• Dimensions, weight, number of units per pack, pack dimensions, pack weight
• Pallet size, height, and weight
• Special handling needs and environmental/temperature control requirements

What are the throughput velocities of your products? It’s important to be familiar with the inbound and outbound history of each SKU, and to know how quickly or slowly it turns around in your warehouse.

Order and picking profiles should be examined too. For example, is an SKU typically ordered by the pallet, carton, split carton, or individual unit?

In addition to profiling individual SKUs, you should try to look at the relationships between them. For instance, do you have two or more SKUs that are commonly ordered together? If so, you should plan to slot them close together to improve picking efficiency.

Another key factor in warehouse-design planning is the quantity of inventory you intend to hold, in either an existing or a new facility. This means taking into account stock currently on hand, along with any plans for expansion. Stock-on-hand snapshots should be taken during peak, normal, and low seasonal periods.

When planning, remember also to consider requirements for specialised storage and processing areas, such as a production room or caged-off quarantine areas.

3) Storage and Warehouse Layout Design

Having evaluated your operational profile, you should be able to start thinking about warehouse storage media and the number and capacity of storage locations, including essential components like loading docks for efficient warehouse layouts.

It is also important to integrate various storage systems within the digital models to analyse their impact on efficiency and workflow.

Will you fit your warehouse with standard racking, or do you see a need for more specialised apparatus such as carousels, or an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS)?

Of course, this stage of planning can become quite complex, and it will often pay to seek advice from equipment suppliers or even engage a consulting firm to help you develop your storage strategy.

Whether you bring in some external help or go it alone, keep the following tips in mind when planning your new warehouse layout:

• Optimise flow by minimising the number of touches as SKUs pass through the warehouse
• Prioritise workforce safety when designing your solutions
• Model a few design options and determine the best solution through quantitative and qualitative comparisons
• Involve all stakeholders in the planning and design process to attain their buy-in

It will pay to make use of digital design and modelling software to help you arrive at an optimal warehouse layout and strategy.

4) Understanding Warehouse Simulation Software

Warehouse simulation software is a powerful tool that can revolutionise your approach to warehouse design and operations. By creating a digital replica of your warehouse, including its layout, equipment, and processes, you can test various scenarios and identify potential bottlenecks without disrupting your physical systems.

Key features of warehouse simulation software include:

• 3D Visualisation: This allows you to see a detailed, three-dimensional view of your warehouse layout and operations, making it easier to spot inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
• Material Flow Simulation: You can simulate the flow of materials through your warehouse, helping you to optimise inventory management and streamline supply chain processes.
• Performance Metrics Analysis: The software can analyse key performance indicators such as throughput, inventory levels, and resource utilisation, providing valuable insights into your warehouse operations.
• Optimisation Capabilities: By testing different design and layout options, you can find the most efficient configuration for your warehouse.
• System Integration: Many warehouse simulation tools can integrate with other systems like ERP, WMS, and TMS, ensuring a seamless flow of information across your operations.

Using warehouse simulation software, organisations can significantly improve their warehouse operations, reduce costs, and enhance overall efficiency. This technology enables you to make data-driven decisions that can lead to substantial improvements in your warehousing operations.

5) Analysing and Optimising Warehouse Operations

Once you have a solid warehouse design in place, the next step is to continuously analyse and optimise your warehouse operations. This involves using data and simulation tools to identify areas for improvement and implement changes that enhance efficiency and reduce costs.

Warehouse simulation software plays a crucial role in this process by allowing you to:

• Analyse Performance Metrics: Evaluate key metrics such as throughput, inventory levels, and resource utilisation to understand how well your warehouse is performing.
• Identify Bottlenecks: Pinpoint areas where operations slow down or become inefficient, and develop strategies to address these issues.
• Test Scenarios: Simulate different operational scenarios to see how changes might impact your entire warehouse and supply chain. This helps you make informed decisions without risking disruptions to your physical systems.
• Optimise Operations: Use the insights gained from your analysis to implement changes that improve efficiency. This could involve reconfiguring your warehouse layout, adjusting inventory management practices, or streamlining material flow.
• Monitor Effectiveness: After implementing changes, continue to monitor performance to ensure that the adjustments are having the desired effect. This ongoing process of analysis and optimisation helps maintain high levels of efficiency and adaptability.

By continuously analysing and optimising your warehouse operations, you can achieve significant improvements in efficiency, cost reduction, and customer satisfaction. This proactive approach ensures that your warehouse remains competitive and capable of meeting the evolving demands of your business and supply chain.

Top Warehouse Modelling Software Solutions

It will pay to make use of digital design and modelling software to help you arrive at an optimal warehouse layout and strategy. A virtual warehouse plays a crucial role in visualising and assessing the layout and performance of operational processes.

There are a number of very good applications on the market. These tools will help you design different solution options to compare and evaluate. You might try any of the following three examples, or hire external specialists that work with them:

CLASS (Cirrus Logistics Ltd)

CLASS is commonly used by 3PLs. The CLASS software licence is expensive but the application is user-friendly and provides 2D/3D views of your layout designs, including elevation views of storage media.

CLASS allows users to design the layout of their warehouses ahead of commissioning projects and without disrupting current operations. It delivers scale models and drawings that are clear and easy to understand.

AutoCAD

An AutoCAD software licence is less expensive than a CLASS licence. However, the application is less user-friendly and is typically used by engineers and racking vendors for design and specifications.

The significantly lower licensing costs can make it especially appealing for smaller operations or companies that only need occasional layout design capabilities.

Google SketchUp

SketchUp is not specifically intended to be a warehouse layout design tool, but has the capabilities necessary for warehouse modelling and can generate perfectly good design visualisations. The biggest benefit of this tool, though, is cost, as the licence is less expensive than either an AutoCAD or a CLASS licence.

Despite its lower price point, SketchUp doesn’t compromise on essential features — users can still create accurate measurements, design to scale, and experiment with different layout configurations.

Make Sure to Document All Results and Assumptions

Throughout the warehouse planning and design process, you will gather a lot of facts and probably make a fair number of assumptions.

It’s good practice to document all facts and assumptions, because this will help you recall how designs were derived. Your records will also prove useful for future layout reviews, which should ideally be conducted every couple of years.

There are any number of reasons why you might wish to review (and perhaps redesign) the layout and operation of your warehouse facility, but they all boil down to the same thing — securing or increasing your company’s competitive advantage.

By taking a thorough and methodical approach (like the one outlined in this article) to warehouse design reviews and improvement plans, your company can extract maximum value from its facilities, removing many of the inventory management obstacles that inflate supply chain costs and ultimately erode profitability.