An warehouse assessment provides a quick analysis of existing operations to identify potential efficiency improvements. Assessments typically last several days to several weeks and can focus on a specific area, like material flow, or the entire operation. Major elements of an assessment include confirming the project scope, understanding the current state through documentation and on-site observation, and delivering a formal report on best practices, labor productivity, storage, flows, capacity, and recommendations for low-cost and strategic improvements. The goal is to find quick wins as well as longer-term opportunities to drive change and meet future demands.

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Warehouse Assessments – what is the value?
An assessment,or also known as an evaluation or audit, is usually done to provide aquick analysis
of existing operations to look for possible improvements in efficiency and service. Think of the
assessment as a way to take your operational pulse. Usually these are short-term in duration,
from several days to aseveral weeks. The assessment can be focused on one area of an operation
(e.g. material flow only or WMS only) or applied to the operation as a whole. Longer duration
would enable a deeper dive into layout and costs. An assessment can take various forms:
 It may be done as a one off study with a focus on solving specific performance problems,
finding solutions that can be quickly implemented with little to no cost and within the
constraints of existing systems support. Basically a search for “low-hanging fruit”.
 It may be done to benchmark an operation against best practices, identifying areas that
are lacking in performance. This may often help to establish priorities for opportunities
from process improvement to consideration of automation.
 It may be designed as the starting point from which real change is begun, meaning the
assessment may be a deeper dive into the operations to develop a detailed roadmap of
opportunities to drive significant change for improvements to meet upcoming demands.
Major elements of an assessment are:
1. Confirm project definition and client expectations: consultant and client management
agree on scope of the project, and the expected deliverables.
2. Understanding current state (prior to visit): consultant to get an understanding of current
operations from information and data provided before facility visit (.i.e. products, sales
channels, sizes, dimensions & packaging, storage method, layouts, turns, labor force size,
hours/days of operations, systems, operating procedures and metrics etc.). The detail
needed ahead of the visit will vary depending on the assessment scope.
3. Understanding current state (during visit): Operational walk-through and observations
regarding the following:
a. Procedures/process review / material flow
b. Information System Review (ERP>WMS) / Gap Analysis
c. Storage methodology/ product slotting analysis
d. Labor / Process Cycle Time assessment
e. Space capacity assessment, adequate for growth plans
4. Formal Report: after consulting work is done a formal report is delivered addressing the
major elements listed above responding to an agreed upon set of deliverables as defined
by the scope, such as:
a. Best Practices assessment of warehouse operations including systems (gaps) such
as use of batch picking or wave planning from a systems perspective or the use of
forward pick facings and bar code labeling from a process perspective.
b. Labor management findings around productivity.
c. Evaluation of storage and product slotting.
d. Assessment of flows.

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e. Capacity of warehouse - % and opportunity for growth.
f. In addition to the formal deliverables listed above, each client also receives two
lists outlining opportunities for improvement based on their specific assessment
results:
i. Low to moderate cost tactical actions that can be implemented
immediately;
ii. Longer term strategic and/or capital intensive opportunities for
improvement such as automation or other types of capital investment
(practicality of capital intensive solutions will very likely require further
analysis, longer project duration).