1

Optimization of a warehouse dimensions with

Sustainable Layout and Design
Alexis Romero1, Víctor A. Ramírez2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, DICIS, Universidad de Guanajuato.

Abstract - The purpose of this investigation is to analyze an An industrial warehouse is a vital element in the supply chain
moving-time industrial warehouse by using various techniques management system, serving a crucial function in the storage.
and tools such that the 3D modelling or the Moving-time and distribution of raw materials and finished goods.
simulation software (FlexSim). The analysis involves an Nonetheless, the efficiency of a warehouse can be impacted by
examination of a layout, then an evaluation of the material several factors, including layout design, material handling
handling system, subsequently an identification of potential
system, inventory management, and operational procedures.
bottlenecks, and provision of solutions to enhance the warehouse
efficiency. Thus, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive analysis of
The findings from this investigation can provide insights of the the warehouse current infrastructure to identify any
warehouse management team in optimizing the facility bottlenecks and recommend effective measures to optimize the
productivity, reducing operational expenses, and boosting the facility efficiency. [3]
customer satisfaction. The optimization of a warehouse is a
critical aspect of ensuring efficient operations and enhancing
overall performance.
II. METHODOLOGY
Keywords: Industrial Warehouse, Layout Analysis,
Material Handling System, Simulation Techniques,
Efficiency Optimization.
A warehouse layout is a key parameter to be considered
to take decisions: dimensions and stock distribution. The
performance of the warehouse will rely on this. The
I. INTRODUCTION dimensions of the warehouse must be adjusted to the quantity
of stock, depending on the determination of the
administration. However, it must be considered a prudent
In recent times, companies are challenged to redesign their stability among high, width and length dimensions of the
processes and to adapt for changes. All these requirements warehouse. A warehouse with many levels decreases the
improve the delivery and production of their goods and available space; however, it is much harder to make any
services. Among the most common strategic problems to be maneuver. It should be noted a great effort is needed to attain
solved are those associated with the configuration of the the stock, nevertheless there are better ways to transport
supply chain [1] and how to approach with supply chain risk products in any direction no matter the high of the warehouse
[2]. The supply chain is the network of operations that [4].
manages the physical flow of materials, money and
information throughout the entire purchasing, production, and Alternatively, in case that a high warehouse should be
distribution process, therefore, its configuration involves key decreased, more resources must be invested in term of ground
elements such as facilities, transportation routes, cargo, area, tough spending were reduced in the warehouse
storage areas, etc. In this line, it has been shown that the transportation process. Hence, the balance of the above-
planning of the design of facilities allow to reduce costs, mentioned parameters results in the optimization of a layout
improve productivity, quality, and efficiency, it offers an functionality.
overview of the current situation of the company and which
better scenarios can be achieved. This study focuses on
warehouses, which are one of the key elements of the supply
chain. Layout Analysis: The warehouse existing layout is
studied to identify the bottlenecks and propose solutions to
optimize the facility's performance. The analysis involves the
use of AutoCAD software to create a 3D model of the facility.
 2

The model is then used to simulate the warehouse's operations consultancy used as a basis and given the limited literature
and identify potential problems. [5]. available. It is believed that this type of design could set a
precedent for the subsequent study of other warehouse
Material Handling System Analysis: The existing orientations and shapes [8]. By means of these assumptions, a
material handling system is assessed to identify the areas that simplified design commonly used in the world is analyzed.
need improvement. The analysis includes evaluating the Within the warehouse, the ABC method will be considered for
equipment used for material handling [6]. the classification of inventories, so we will have three
categories within: category A for the scarcest materials but
which contribute to 80% of total profits, category B for
Solutions Proposal: Based on the analysis results, products that represent 15% of sales and finally category C
various solutions are proposed to optimize the warehouse with 5%. This distribution policy considers the A products as
efficiency. The solutions include modifying the layout design, those with the highest turnover, therefore, they will be the
upgrading the material handling system, and optimizing the ones to be kept closer to periodically control the stock, since
inventory management system. The proposed solutions are any stock rupture translates into large losses [9]. On the
evaluated using simulation software to identify the potential opposite side for category C, we have products that generate
impact on the facility's performance [7]. low income and which we will have fewer resources to
control. With these considerations in the following section, we
deduce the formulas used.
Within following formulas deduced for the layout and
distribution of warehouses. To locate the greatest dimensions
and layout, examine occasions have been used as defined
withinside the preceding section. These formulations are
Design of a Given Area:
challenge to some of previous assumptions that are below, The objective is to model the energy use for moving
which stand up from the layout of the warehouse withinside products within the warehouse.
the plant of the consultancy carried out. Therefore, we will use Figure 1 as a schematic to refer to the
dimensions and orientation of the warehouse. First, length Tv
and width Tu of the warehouse will be calculated using
Assumptions
• The warehouse is rectangular form (see Figure 1); Equations (1) and (2). The total width of the warehouse is Tu
• Access to the factory is located at the top of the total area, in Figure 1:
while other facilities such as quality control and management
are located at the bottom. Tu = nu (w + c) (1)
• Products will be stored on shelves on two sides
• Products enter the warehouse through the front door In addition, the total length of the warehouse is Tv, considering
warehouse and exit through the opposite door. Figure 1:

Tv = 2c + ml (2)

Considering that both length and width restrict the cost of

transporting and handling the goods inside the warehouse, the
warehouse area has the dimension given by Equation (3).

Area = tu . tv = nu(w + c) . (2c + nul). (3)

The total capacity of the warehouse to store articles of

categories A, B, and C can be expressed as:

NA = 2mAnunh (4)
Figure 1. Warehouse layout and orientation.

NB = 2mBnunh (5)
These assumptions are based on the most used designs for
warehouses, which are rectangular [6], with double racking to NC = 2mCnunh. (6)
maximize capacity and space. On the other hand, only the
orientation parallel to the longest part will be studied in this Equation (7) shows the expected value of the distance
work due to the orientation of the warehouse in the traveled in height, which is at most nh, which on average is
 3

nh/2. of both finished products and finished products are

fundamental pillars of production. In this case, we will analyze
E(dh)= nh/2. (7) the finished product warehouse specifically, which is where
the greatest movement of the company takes place, given the
different models with their respective capacities for sale and
the company’s demand [10].
Testing
In this section, present the application of the formulations
proposed above. Begin by briefly characterizing and analyzing
the configuration of the work plant, and then defining the
variables and parameters used in the development of the case.

Setup
Figure 3 shows, the colors represent: The green color is
used for transit of people, light blue is for closed workspaces,
and white color is for truck, crane traffic and other vehicles.
Section 9 corresponds to the tooling area and section 10 to the
administrative staff offices. As shown in Figure 3, the factory
located at the intersection of Adolfo Eastman and Logroño
streets is a large production plant with different processes
running simultaneously for the manufacture of water heaters,
where sinks and spare parts are also manufactured for sale.
These areas include have the finished product warehouse
which is a fundamental pillar in the production of all items in
the factory. The following flow chart shows the role of this
area within the plant.

Figure 4. Schematic of the plant.

Application and Results

The formulas developed in Section 3 are validated here. The

warehouse manages three product families, water heaters with
16 L (A), 13 L (B) and 8 L (C) capacity. All products stored in
the warehouse are classified into one of these three categories
according to the ABC categories [11]. Thus, products in
category A are located closer to the door, while those in class
B are at a medium distance and those in class C are at a
greater distance. The probability of belonging to class A is 0.5,
Figure 3. Scematic. Initial layout of the water heater factory. of belonging to class B is 0.3, and of belonging to class C is
0.2, giving greater weighting to the most important
The flow chart in Figure 4 shows all the flows of materials, classification.
finished products and products in process in one month,
measured in tons. Given the distribution of these flows, we The warehouse is organized by classes according to the ABC
can corroborate the previous premise, where the warehouses Method, with the following segmentation: 4125(nA),
 4

2475(nB) and 990(nc), which correspond to the spaces guide on the internal distribution of the categories, where
allocated for storage by product class. Regarding the increases or decreases of the spaces destined to these can harm
dimensions of the warehouse, frames with loading on both or contribute to the decrease of the energy consumption per
sides are available, width (w) of 2.2 m. Each storage space movement, which is one of the objectives to minimize.
measures a width of 1.1 m and a height of 1 m. Aisle width is
2 m and door width is 4 m. Finally, the demand is estimated at It is proposed for future research to study other distributions
120,000 pallets of products per year and the warehouse and forms of warehouses taking these formulations as a basis
capacity is 7590 pallets. A summary of the parameters and to be able, finally, to expand the results to any type of
their values is presented below in the Table 1. warehouse to be built. In addition, an interesting approach
proposed is to incorporate the design of warehouses within the
design methodologies of production plants, since this way the
flows within the production process are improved and efficient
designs can be deduced and improved [13].

Table 1. Summary of parameters and their values in the water

heater factory.

The values for the cost of movement on the horizontal plane

Eµ and the height penalty factor Fh were estimated from the
company accounting records.

III. DISCUSION

With the tests performed, it can be concluded that the

formulas developed in this work contribute to an explicit,
simple, and direct calculation for the dimensions of a
warehouse, providing quality solutions in terms of minimizing
energy consumption for transporting materials [12].
From the analysis of warehouse of the water heater factory
obtained for the case with restricted area, we find that this
particular area of 40 m wide and 20 m high creates a
dimension that allows the construction of an energy efficient
warehouse, given the limitations, although they make the
warehouse must have more height than the ideal, with a total
height of 25 m, which will hinder the handling of inventory in
height and especially increase energy costs. An advantage of
these formulas is that they allow the calculation of values and
foresee the difficulty associated with such a high warehouse.

Thus, it is necessary to analyze that the contribution of these

formulations is not limited only to the calculation of
dimensions, but that the penalties play an important role as
indicators within the distribution of the warehouse. These
 5

REFERENCES

1. Chandra, C.; Grabis, J. Supply Chain Configuration;

Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.: Berlin/Heidelberg,
Germany, 2007.
2. Gurtu, A.; Johny, J. Supply Chain Risk Management:
Literature Review. Risks 2021, 9, 16. [CrossRef]
3. Baker, P.; Canessa, M. Warehouse design: A structured
approach. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2009, 193, 425–436. [CrossRef]
4. Gua, J.; Goetschalckx, M.; McGinnis, L.F. Research on
warehouse design and performance evaluation: A
comprehensive review.
Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2010, 203, 539–549. [CrossRef]
5. De Koster, R.B.M.; Johnson, A.L.; Roy, D. Warehouse
design and management. Int. J. Prod. Res. 2017, 55, 6327–
6330. [CrossRef]
6. Da Cunha Reis, A.; de Souza, C.G.; da Costa, N.N.;
Stender, G.H.C.; Senna, P.; Pizzolato, N. Warehouse Design:
A Systematic
Literature Review. Braz. J. Oper. Prod. Manag. 2017, 14, 542–
555. [CrossRef]
7. Accorsi, R.; Manzini, R.; Maranesi, F.; Sepúlveda, J. A
decision-support system for the design and management of
warehousing
systems. Comput. Ind. 2014, 65, 175–186. [CrossRef]
8. RazaviAlavi, S.R.; AbouRizk, S. Site layout and
construction plan optimization using an integrated genetic
algorithm simulation
framework. J. Comput. Civ. Eng. 2017, 31, 04017011.
[CrossRef]
9. Michalek, J.; Papalambros, P. Interactive design
optimization of architectural layouts. Eng. Optim. 2002, 34,
485–501. [CrossRef]
10. Saderova, J.; Rosova, A.; Sofranko, M.; Kacmary, P.
Example of Warehouse System Design Based on the Principle
of Logistics.
Sustainability 2021, 13, 4492. [CrossRef]
11. Sprock, T.; Murrenhoff, A.; McGinnis, L.F. A hierarchical
approach to warehouse design. Int. J. Prod. Res. 2017, 55,
6331–6343.
[CrossRef]
12. Cardona, L.; Soto, D.; Rivera, L.; Martínez, H. Detailed
design of fishbone warehouse layouts with vertical travel. Int.
J.
Productionecon. 2015, 170, 825–837. [CrossRef]
13. Öztürko ˘glu, Ö.; Gue, K.R.; Meller, R.D. Optimal
unitload warehouse designs for single-command operations.
IIE Trans. 2012, 44,
459–475. [CrossRef]