Your consulting firm has been selected to make a proposal to a company setting up a new distribution center in Louisville, KY. The company distributes outdoor equipment. The product line includes clothing and camping gear. The clothing is made in the Far East and repacked for individual stores in San Francisco, and then sent to Louisville for shipment to the stores.

The items and receiving and shipping specifics are as follows:

Clothing is shipped in cartons and is not loaded on pallets. The cartons are floor loaded (meaning no pallets) and they are stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Cartons of clothing are immediately cross-docked and shipped to individual retail outlets. Trucks with clothing arrive three times per week.

The warehouse has to store smaller camping gear such as camping stoves, hiking and fishing gear. These smaller items have to be stored in the warehouse and picked for individual store orders. Most of the smaller items are shipped to the warehouse on pallets. However, some cartons are floor loaded and may be damaged during shipment.

The camping gear includes backpacks. These backpacks can be personalized with the customer's initials. The customizing has to be performed in the Louisville warehouse before shipping out.

The retail outlets have displays of bass fishing boats. The customer can order a boat at the store, but the boat is sent to the customer directly from the Louisville warehouse. The bass boats are made by a third party vendor.

Your assignment is to design and equip a warehouse to handle the customer's needs. Your recommendations must be presented in a written report format suitable for presentation to your client. Address each of the following items:

Customer Base - In addition to company owned stores, the company also supplies outdoor equipment to Walmart. No customized backpacks are sold to Wal-Mart. How will this affect the way you design your warehouse?

Shape - What warehouse shape is the best fit for your client's business model? Be very specific as to why you have selected the design you chose. How will the design make the warehouse operation efficient? Draw a sketch and label the departments by function.

Cross Docking - It takes approximately 4 hours to unload a floor loaded trailer full of cartons. In addition to time, the unloading process ties up three warehouse workers. This process also ties up a receiving dock. Shipments arrive at random times/intervals. What would you recommend to make the cross docking process less stressful on the assets of the warehouse?

Pallet Storage and Retrieval - What pallet storage method would you recommend and why?

Order Picking - This operation must be fast and accurate. What picking method would you recommend to ensure speed and accuracy. Why?

Customizing - The process of customizing backpacks will inevitably delay delivery of the product to the customer. What can be done to ensure that individual customers will receive their backpacks in a timely manner?

Large Equipment - Bass boats are sent to the store where the customer placed the order from. Orders placed by Wal-Mart customers are sent to the nearest Wal-Mart distribution center. What do you recommend as the best way to get the bass boats to the customer? Why do you feel this is the best viable option? Be specific.

In addition to addressing the above questions, you need submit the following item as well:

Warehouse Equipment - List the equipment you would recommend having for your warehouse. The recommendation must include specifications on the type of equipment, model number, supplier, and the purchase price/cost. 

Minimum of 5 written pages, not including the cover sheet

Each of the first seven areas are worth 10% of the final grade

The warehouse equipment list and the presentation itself are worth 10% each of the final grade

Each topic must be addressed in as much detail as possible. Every question must be answered and justification for your answer must be included

Sketches and pictures are allowed and recommended to help demonstrate your answers

The report must be written in a professional format that can be presented to a client

Each topic should be highlighted

Proper grammar and neatness are imperative