IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF WAREHOUSE ORDER-PICKING PROCESS: A CASE OF ETHIOPIAN PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY AGENCY ARBAMINCH BRANCH

Abstract

Researches in relation with improvement of order picking process are hard to find in countries like Ethiopia, as topics like this are overlooked. But studying on the improvement of order picking process is great for the field and looking at it in detail may bring changes in performances of warehouses, as it is necessary to look from the bottom to see the big picture or else looking only the big picture may not let us to know the root causes as needed. Being one of the most time consuming processes in the field of warehousing called, picking has the highest impact on the service level. In turn, from the warehouse activities picking is the most complex, labour intensive and costly. However, due to the customer demand fluctuation increased allocation strategy’s need to be reviewed and adjusted over time for the reasonable utilization of warehouse space. Since the main goal of this thesis is to improve performance of warehouse order-picking process in Case of Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency Arbaminch branch. Under this, it assess the current states of order picking process in warehouses of the agency, identify the type of storage system, picking strategy and bottlenecks in the warehouse, identify variables to improve overall order-picking time and propose solutions using mathematical and analytical models. This research applied the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) model to improve the order picking process in case company warehouse. The order pick delays affected customer satisfaction, DMAIC helped the researcher to define the pick problems, measure the current pick performance, and analyze the root causes. For the analysis of collected data Microsoft Excel, Cause and Effect analysis, Pareto Chart analysis and POM-QM software was used. The finding of this research indicates that the performance of order picking process was affected by long searching time and lack of product knowledge. This phenomenon was caused due to random storing arrangement in the warehouse and poor pickers’ educational background level. These top two problems were source of 80 % problem that cause delay in order picking process, so that they can forward for solution making. The researcher develops new assignment model formulation and propose conceptual framework as an improvement and control methods. The comparison result between before and after implementation of the storage assignment strategy indicates that there is a significant improvement in the order picking time, which was reduced by 34.4 minutes. Finally, the conclusion and recommendation were given