In today's world, the demands for short delivery times have not only continued to increase, but they have become a crucial factor for companies' competitiveness. In an era characterized by constant change, it is not just the speed of the market that matters, but rather the delivery time to the customer has become a critical factor in securing success in the market. Today, Babyshop is the leading e-commerce company when it comes to exclusive children's fashion. Babyshop's picking warehouse includes some larger products that do not fit into the automation system and are therefore handled manually before being shipped to the customer. This results in a handling that is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and inefficient.
The thesis was conducted on the manually handled goods material flow, at Babyshop's picking warehouse. The purpose of the study was to contribute to a more efficient material flow by identifying problem areas and proposing improvement measures. The goal was also to reduce the handling of products through these measures.
To achieve the purpose of the case study, a foundation was established by conducting a flow mapping to gain knowledge about Babyshop's current material flow. To gain a deeper understanding, observations, interviews, and company documents were also utilized. Based on relevant theories, proposals improvement measures to streamline the material flow were then developed.
The study has identified five crucial problem areas in the current material flow. These problem areas include batching methods, picking methods, product placement, rework at the packing station, and manual sorting. By implementing improvement measures based on the identified problem areas, the study has shown that the time required for completing a full batch has been reduced from 218 to 30 minutes. The results of the study are strongly supported by both empirical evidence and theory, making them reliable and useful for companies with similar picking warehouse strategies as Babyshop. By applying these results, the companies can minimize costs and increase profitability.
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