The warehouse of the 1990s has gone beyond dusty shelves and trolleys. Simon Jack masters the techno-speak of the distributors with this quick reference guide.
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs): vehicles that move about either on rails or on wheels controlled by sensors and used to carry goods around the warehouse
Automatic cranes: devices used to take goods in and out of storage racking areas. They can operate to great heights, sometimes in excess of 25m
Automatic goods receipt: the practice through which products coming in to a warehouse are checked by a barcode reader that identifies the goods’ location. They are then put straight into storage without being checked in by warehouse staff. Manufacturers putting goods into storage from the end of a production line are most likely to employ this practice
Automatic vehicle off-loading: the process of rapidly unloading specially equipped vehicle trailers by connecting a conveyor to them
Black box: another name for an automated storage area. Because few, if any, people are needed in these areas, they often operate in darkness until someone comes in. Heating can also be used sparingly – for example, when stored products would be damaged by low temperatures
Building footprint: the amount of land that a building sits directly on top of. Because they are usually very tall, automated warehouses make efficient use of land and have small building footprints
Bulk storage: the area of the warehouse in which goods are stored in large quantities, often by the pallet
Carousels: cylindrical storage devices used to store small items, such as spare parts, stationery or pharmaceuticals. They are divided into sections and, when a product number is keyed in, rotate vertically until the correct section appears in front of the operative
Composite warehouses: warehouses, usually used in the food industry, that can handle goods of more than one temperature
Delayering and case picking: the operation in which automatic equipment is used to make up orders to customers’ requirements
Dock-levellers: ramps that align the back of a lorry to the loading or unloading bay – an essential part of a modern warehouse
Eaves height: the internal height of a building, which limits the height of the racking
Electronic data interchange (EDI): a digital device that conveys messages, such as orders for goods, which are used to decide which items need to be retrieved from storage and sent off
Hanging garment rails: garment rails on wheels used in clothing warehouses to transport jackets, suits, dresses and coats around the building
High-bay racking: the automation-aided technique of stacking goods very high, sometimes using racking that has slots for 12 layers of pallets
Load marshalling: the automatic collection and in-vehicle storage of all goods to be dispatched to suit the loading requirements of the vehicle
Pallet conveyors: the network of conveyors to take goods on pallets around an automated warehouse
Pick stations: locations at which products can be selected and made up into consignments for dispatch to customers
Pounds per square foot (llbs per sq ft): a measure of the strength of floors. The floors of automated warehouses support thousands of pounds per square foot to support high racking and sophisticated handling equipment
Random access storage: often, the most space-efficient way to store goods, in which those of a similar type are not necessarily stored together. Instead, the warehouse computer knows which pallet locations are empty and diverts the goods there, using the quickest route that the warehouse operative or automated equipment can take. Similarly, the computer knows where goods are when they need to be retrieved
Reach trucks: manually controlled vehicles that can be used to put away and retrieve goods. These can reach the highest parts of the warehouse, often aided by sensors that help line the truck up against a pallet location
RF terminals: places at which warehouse operatives hear radio messages instructing them to retrieve or store items in the warehouse
Single-layer pallets: a single pallet of goods to be sent, often from manufacturer to retailer. The need to cut down stock has meant that goods are sent more frequently but in smaller batches, so pallets, rather than being stacked on top of each other, often remain unstacked
Site density: the proportion of the overall site that is devoted to the building. An automated, high-racked warehouse’s site density will be greater than that of a cross-docking warehouse operation, where goods are loaded straight into the warehouse and are then quickly dispatched into another vehicle – more space is needed for vehicle movements
Sortation systems: a mechanical or digital method for sorting goods for storage or dispatch. Often, computer barcodes are used to identify goods and then divert them onto different conveyor belts or chutes according to their destination
Telescopic levellers: ramps that open out like telescopes to go straight into vehicles, allowing goods to be taken off, often by conveyor. Frequently used with automatic vehicle off-loading
Tote boxes: re-usable plastic boxes used as an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable items such as pallets, shrink-wrapping, cardboard boxes and roll-cages
Very narrow aisle warehousing: a storage technique that maximises the storage area within a warehouse. Using this technique, handling equipment, for example cranes or trucks, needs to be able to travel backwards and forwards along an aisle because there is no room to turn. Trucks are often on rails or use sensors to avoid bumping into the racking
Warehouse management systems: a computer that co-ordinates all the storage and retrieval operations and monitors the performance of the site by sections or as a whole
360¡ bar code readers: devices that read a product’s barcode, from any angle, for automatic sortation machines, allowing the product’s progress through the warehouse to be traced
Automation
