Comments on: New Warehouse Layout, Inventory Zones, & Efficiency

By: Our Improved Inventory Zone System | Adam McFarland

Our Improved Inventory Zone System | Adam McFarland — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:28:58 +0000

[...] little over a year ago I wrote a post entitled New Warehouse Layout, Inventory Zones, & Efficiency where I explained our new “inventory zone” system. Prior to implementing that system, [...]

By: No Longer Working For The Man…Or Am I? | DavePit.com

No Longer Working For The Man…Or Am I? | DavePit.com — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:59:53 +0000

[...] inspirational and have lead to things that have really helped me out. Little things like learning how his business setup their warehouse, or opening the doors to Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcasts have made bigger [...]

By: No Longer Working For The Man…Or Am I? | DavePit.com

No Longer Working For The Man…Or Am I? | DavePit.com — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:59:53 +0000

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:10:23 +0000

Haha classic. I’d love to let ProModel rip through a simulation of the warehouse! Drop me a line next time you’re in town and we’ll have to meet up for drinks.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:59:17 +0000

Adam,

Good to see that IME education paying off. When I stumbled upon this post all I could think about was an animated ProModel simulation running through your warehouse. On second thought, I’m sure with a random bump into Malmborg, you could get some free “consulting” work from some IMEs in training.

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:49:50 +0000

If you guys haven't read it: a great article last month in Inc. about Zappos. They give free tours and they'll even come pick you up and drive you to their facility. We're hoping to get out there sometime this year. Would be a great learning experience.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:36:34 +0000

I read somewhere that Zappos.com gets an order of shoes out the door within 8 minutes of purchase. DAMN!

Damn is right! I’d love to see how they manage everything. I’d assume it’s probably similar to Newegg, and we’ve had some insight into that.

By: Nev

Nev — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:17:52 +0000

Since I run a drop shipping operation I luckily don’t have to deal with warehousing. I read somewhere that Zappos.com gets an order of shoes out the door within 8 minutes of purchase. DAMN!

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:09:10 +0000

Thanks Dave. I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s a fluid process. As a company, as long as you’re constantly re-evaluating things you shouldn’t ever become inefficient or archaic. I think you start running into trouble when you start saying things like “this is the way we’ve always done it”. Hopefully my partners and I will never become those guys.

Oh, and when/if you think it’s necessary for your sites I’d be happy to share the code we use for the box size system. Drop me an email any time.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:45:05 +0000

Love these types of posts too! I need to get my hands on your box size spreadsheet

The way you have it setup seems as efficient as possible given the size, amount of products, and the way you have things setup now. As you continue to grow, make sure and keep rethinking the process for efficiency.

Nev – I also followed all of the homeless experiment posts, great stuff!