Warehouse management with lean and RFID application: a case study

Abstract

This research presents the integration of lean production and radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse management. More than ten million parts belonging to around 10,000 types in a distribution center were involved in this study. There are more than 10,000 storage and retrieval operations for hundreds of part types on a daily basis. Value stream mapping was used to draw current state mapping and future state mapping (with lean management and RFID) with material flow, information flow, and time flow. Preliminary experiments showed that the average reading rate of electric forklift and hydraulic cart are 99.3 and 99.1 % by fixed ultra-high frequency RFID readers with antenna installed at the receiving/shipping dock and passive tags mounted on box/pallet. The processing time of data transmitting to warehouse management system at receiving and shipping docks was reduced by 99 and 89 %, respectively. The total operation time from current stage to future stage with only lean can be saved by 79 %. With further integration of RFID to lean, the total operation time can be saved by 87 %. Moreover, performance on saving total operation time can be enhanced to 91 % with cross-docking. The benefit of using RFID in the warehouse management is realized and promoted.