Intelligent –Warehouse Space Utilization Solution

Abstract

In simple terms a warehouse is a commercial building usually located in industrial cities and towns to temporarily store goods. The functions and activities performed in a warehouse include, processing of orders and shipments requested by the customer, management of the inventory stored in the warehouse, optimization of the storage space. In a manual system the processing of the order requests is a slow process, as the warehouse management needs to search through large amount of data to determine whether or not the order can be accommodated. Also, it is extremely important for a warehouse business to efficiently manage the storage space, as storing more items means more profit. In a manual system this is hard to achieve as the staff needs to perform tedious calculations to determine the best orientation and the most suitable slot for the item. Therefore, slow order processing and tedious calculations result in in-efficient resource utilization and low profit margins for the warehouse. The purpose of this project is to develop a web based application that will help relieve the warehouse staff and the customers of the problems currently being faced. Intelligent-Warehouse Space Utilization Solution (I-WSUS), provides all the basic functionalities required by a warehouse, including; on-line order and shipment processing, generation of put-away and pick-up instructions, search facilities to determine item‟s exact location and maintenance of booking schedules without staff intervention. The Three Dimensional Bin Packing Algorithm has been implemented which helps to calculate the optimized orientation of an item and also determines the best available location to place the item. Intelligent-Warehouse Space Utilization Solution daily generates a list of items that are expected to arrive and depart from the warehouse; this feature helps ensure that the correct items are being shipped. The xvi application also provides customers the facility to access the items stored in the warehouse and to modify the reservations over the internet. Hence, Intelligent-Warehouse Space Utilization Solution intends to provide a complete warehouse management solution which will help relieve the warehouse staff of the frustrating daily activities and will enhance customer satisfaction.