A task is a work request for the warehouse personnel, say for example a putaway or picking task. In the beginning users were doing undirected tasks meaning tasks are not assigned to any resource. Resource themselves choose some tasks based on their own assumptions and preferences. Later directed task concept came into place where in supervisors assigned tasks to respective personnel. Managing tasks efficiently can reduce warehousing expenses to large extent. This has lead to innovations in task management like prioritising the tasks based on the business criticality. For example picking task is preferred over putaway task and replenishment task is preferred over picking task. The time lapse from the generation of the task also is taken into account later. The older the task the higher the priority of the task to be executed. Still the tasks are not optimised and the warehouse personnel tend to roam meaninglessly for longer distances. Then came in the concept of task interleaving. A good example of task interleaving is doing a putaway task on the way to pick products for shipping. This reduces empty runs (movements).
Task interleaving is characterised by 3 principles - driven by priority and proximity and constrained by permissions / authorisations / access capabilities.
Priority; Each task type is identified and are assigned priority for each task type. This is termed as absolute priority. Later the element of time lapse came in and a delta priority for interval of time is defined. Priority keeps on increasing as time lapses.
Proximity; The distance from the personnel position. This eliminates empty moves.
Permissions; Certain zones or areas inside the warehouse may be secured and only authorised personnel came move in there. The other criterion might be only authorized vehicle types can move in a zone. The locations may be multilevel and for lower access levels hand jockey can be used where for higher access levels we might need to have specialized material handling equipments.
Task interleaving is characterised by 3 principles - driven by priority and proximity and constrained by permissions / authorisations / access capabilities.
Priority; Each task type is identified and are assigned priority for each task type. This is termed as absolute priority. Later the element of time lapse came in and a delta priority for interval of time is defined. Priority keeps on increasing as time lapses.
Proximity; The distance from the personnel position. This eliminates empty moves.
Permissions; Certain zones or areas inside the warehouse may be secured and only authorised personnel came move in there. The other criterion might be only authorized vehicle types can move in a zone. The locations may be multilevel and for lower access levels hand jockey can be used where for higher access levels we might need to have specialized material handling equipments.
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