MMK Trading House has developed a project to modernize the warehouse

2024: Warehouse Upgrade

AXELOT specialists have developed a project to modernize the warehouse for the authorized supplier of one of the world's largest steel producers - PJSC MMK Group. These recommendations will help optimize the management of warehouse logistics and processes on the territory of the complex. This was announced on December 24 by AXELOT.

As reported, the activities of MMK Trading House LLC are aimed at optimizing the quality of service. Accordingly, the organization makes every effort to ensure that logistics processes are coordinated, fast and uninterrupted. To achieve these goals, the management decided to modernize the warehouse complex in Magnitogorsk. It is planned to build a site here, as well as automate logistics processes using the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and the Yard Management System (YMS).

AXELOT specialists were engaged in the development of the concept of operation of the warehouse complex of MMK Trading House LLC.

The main mission of the facility is to provide quick delivery to customers of any position from a wide range of products, including: reinforcement, corner, channel, steel, steel, steel, wire, nails, fasteners, ropes and much more (more than 10,000 items and sizes of products). The goods are received and shipped both by rail and by road.

Evaluating the actual processes of the complex, AXELOT specialists proposed the concept of warehouse development. The recommendations were aimed at eliminating bottlenecks and will allow coordinating the incoming transport flow with the capabilities of the warehouse complex for vehicle processing, formalizing transport management on the territory, optimizing the transparency of business processes, organizing targeted storage and using all available areas. The concept also includes recommendations for site organization.

Based on the needs of the customer and the planned growth of turnover, a topology was developed for the new warehouse, as well as the topology of existing warehouses was revised taking into account the proposed profiling of storage places.

A distinctive feature of the project was the development of business processes for the future implementation of AXELOT YMS, which cover the entire cycle of interaction with vehicles within the customer's warehouse complex.

During the survey, facts of uneven arrival of vehicles for loading, formation of queues, transportation of vehicles between warehouses, downtime, which caused failures in the operation of the complex and in some cases led to claims from counterparties for simple vehicles were recorded. AXELOT analyzed the current situation and identified priorities for YMS:

• Organize automated control of transport admission to the territory with the construction of an optimal route by weight/warehouses/registration and reduce the driver's stay on the territory of the complex. The principles and algorithms of processes for YMS, which will manage the movement of transport on the territory of the warehouse complex, were spelled out.
• Distribute vehicles to warehouses and arrival periods during the day. AXELOT experts recommended that the customer use a time slot system.
• Ensure the possibility of systematic work with claims from counterparties for vehicle downtime. YMS will allow you to record the time of arrival of the driver (the moment of registration in the electronic queue), the time of arrival at the territory (fixing the entry of the vehicle at the checkpoint), the time of loading at each warehouse (fixed by the time of start and completion of loading), the time of departure from the territory (fixing the departure of the vehicle from the territory). The collected data will allow you to analyze bottlenecks and timely adjust processes when problems arise.

Some of the recommendations related to processes in WMS, which will also help reduce transport downtime and equipment mileage:

• Optimize transport movement between warehouses and avoid downtime in loading queues. AXELOT experts analyzed shipments, identified the frequency of combinations of items in one document and recommended placing the most "popular" goods in all warehouses of the terminal.
• Reduce mileage of gantry cranes and crane beams, as well as speed up the process of loading and unloading vehicles. The experts identified areas for storage of FMR items within each warehouse (analysis of product assortment by frequency of calls).

In addition, AXELOT experts recommended dividing the operating load into incoming and outgoing flows, as well as splitting the processing of threads for day and night. A floating 3/3 schedule with night shifts was proposed, which was in line with the customer's plans. The basic principles of automated balancing are formulated.

Warehouse processes were also developed that take into account future automation, including the project team defining the functional boundaries of the system. The active participation of the customer in the concept development process helped to obtain complete information about the existing storage and cargo processing system, select a suitable warehouse development concept and work it out in detail. As a result, the management of MMK Trading House LLC received detailed recommendations that will optimize the overall efficiency of warehouse management and yard territory.