First Group 2 meeting

Our group's meeting last night went very well (except that we didn't connect well with our members who are not in Auburn--I'm working on this issue).  The group is diverse in home country, but everyone is intelligent and interested in our project.  We have a big job ahead of us in resolving three defined issues in the warehouse:

1. picking congestion--When an order is received, pickers (people who fill the orders) move from inventory location to inventory location gathering the items in an order.  At the same time, restockers (people who move product from a bulk storage part of the warehouse to the picking part of the warehouse) are moving from inventory location to inventory location replenishing product.  In this warehouse order shipment is being delayed because there is congestion in some of the warehouse aisles.  We have not been told what is causing the congestion.   There are many ways to resolve this problem and we have to figure out the best combination of all of them.  We'll likely develop several mathematical models of the process and run simulations to help us choose the best solution.
2. putting each product in the best location--This issue goes hand in hand with #1.  "Best" location is different depending on the particular use of the location.  The best locations for stocking are different from the best locations for re-stocking and these are different from the best locations for picking cartons which are different from the best locations for picking pallets or for picking "eaches".  Again, we'll develop mathematical models and some graphical representations of products and locations and run simulations to help us solve the problem.
3. changing the "cut off time" for shipment--Currently the warehouse has a policy that if an order is received by 10 am, it will ship out before 8 pm that same day.  This would work fine if everyone were in the time zone, but for orders coming from California (the warehouse is in Columbus--eastern) 10 am is like 7 am.  Management thinks that the cut off time can be moved later in the day.  Our job is to determine the latest possible cut off time that will guarantee that all orders received by that time are shipped by 8 pm that same day. 

We spent about 1 1/2 hours discussing the project, strategies for solving the problems, skills we all have and how best to organize ourselves.  We'll meet again on Monday afternoon.  At that time we'll begin talking about some mathematical models.  Between now and then, we'll all be studying our text as well as the data that we've been given by AFLAC.  We're still in the definition stage of our project--if we do this right, the rest will fall into place.