Digitized Planning with Visualization for Warehouse Layouts

In warehouse planning and dimensioning, many parameters and conditions have to be met and goals must be fulfilled, e.g. labor and investment costs, desired throughput and capacity, available material handling technologies and size constraints. These factors determine the ultimate choice of a particular alternative from a wide range of solution alternatives.On the one hand, the warehouse planning process is very complex and takes into account all different aspects of decision-making. On the other hand, it is expected that the planning period is shorter and shorter. To balance out the competing interests of accuracy and time, it is a promising approach to make use of computer-based planning tools. They can be used to find the most cost-efficientalternative and to visualize its layout.In addition, at the end of the planning process not only technologies and layout dimensions are specified, the warehouse layout with the rack configuration, the conveyors and the buildings should be visualized in three dimensions.It is a promising approach to integrate the detailed layout drawing through computer-aideddesign tools such as AutoCAD Inventor into warehouse planning process. Softwareis developed for detailed warehouse planning. The core modules of the software can generate a favorable warehouse alternative and an AutoCAD-Add-On for the visualization of the outcomes.With the planning tool,the planning period can be significantly shortened while simultaneously the planning quality, especially during the period of rough planning, increases.To balance out the competing interests of accuracy and time, it is a promising approach to make use ofcomputer-basedplanning tools. They can be used to find the most cost-efficientalternative and to visualize its layout.