Jo Ann Fabrics

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Jo Ann Fabric distribution center in Opelika.  It is a 700,000 square foot building that distributes merchandise to stores in 17 states.  They store over 34,000 different items.  The workers in the receiving area (sorters) empty the trailers and sort the boxes for stowing.  The sorters wear headphones and the Warehouse Management System (WMS) software tells the worker on which pallet to stack which box.  Then workers on lift trucks take the sorted and stacked boxes and stow them in huge pallet racks.  That space is reserve storage where some of the racks are almost 50 feet high.   It is near smaller flow racks in the "picking area".  The flow racks are replenished from the reserve storage area as needed.   Workers called pickers receive orders and move up and down the picking area gathering the merchandise into totes that are labeled and placed on conveyors.  At the other end of the warehouse is the shipping area.  It is VERY automated.  Totes and boxes from all of the pickers flow into the sortation area where the labels are scanned and a special type of conveyor with "shoes" pushes the correct box or tote onto the conveyor that leads to the trailer on which it is to be shipped.  We were there for a "wave" when all of the orders are released to the sortation device and it was amazing.

They employ an industrial engineer to make this entire warehouse process run smoother, safer and faster.  He's done things like raise the stacking tables to about waist height (better on the back), lower the picking racks, and re-slot some of the items to be closer to the conveyors.  Having a dedicated industrial engineer in the warehouse has improved operations by 20% in the five years he's been there.  I don't think I'd want to work in a warehouse, but it would be fun to design the sortation devices!  And, I think Allan would love driving the fork lift trucks.