This research was conducted in a furniture manufacturer in Jepara. The company
is considered as one of the biggest teak wood furniture producers and exporters in
Jepara. Several products of teak wood are produced and stored in a finished goods
warehouse. In the warehouse, several activity is conducted related to the product
from the production floor until the shipping process. According to the interview with
stakeholders, the shipping process is often delayed, which means that the shipping
truck can not be boarded on time based on the schedule. Since August 2024, 85%
of shipping trucks have been delayed, with the average delay time of 60 minutes.
This issue could lead to a late shipment abroad. Through an interrelationship
diagram, it is known that the possible root cause is the blocked products due to the
inappropriate warehouse layout, which leads to difficulty in the product picking
process. Based on several considerations, the selected alternative solution is to
do relayout design of the finished goods warehouse.
The tools used are Systematic Layout Planning (SLP), which focuses on product
flow through several activities. This method also considers material handling
facilities, such as forklifts, and the travel distance between zones. It also includes
defining the space requirements for stored products. The product flow, as well as
the transporter flow distance, is arranged and drawn before proceeding with the
implementation.
The implementation is simulated using FlexSim software. Based on the
implementation, the average picking-up time was successfully reduced by 52%.
Compared to the initial time of the picking up process, which averages 72.47
minutes, the new layout needs 34.91 minutes in total. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the new layout significantly minimizes the product picking-up time
and reduces the delay that happens in the shipping process.