Typical Project Overview:-

The automation project process can be separated into four  phases: preparing, defining, implementing, evaluating.

Phase 1 - Preparation

• This phase lays the groundwork for the automation of the project. The primary activities are to establish a set of goals and to form a team, which will define and implement the business changes needed to accomplish these goals.

Phase 2 - Definition

• During Phase 2, documents are written that describe in detail how the warehouse or distribution centre will operate with automation. There are two major steps in this phase. First, define the new business process for the facility. Second, specify the material handling hardware and  system software requires supporting the new process.

Phase 3- Implementation

• The third phase of the automation project is the implementation phase. This phase typically constitutes the longest portion of the project cycle time due to vendor lead times for equipment and the time required to integrate and test all the new system components and make modifications to existing information systems.

Phase 4 - Evaluating the lessons learned and project hand over.

• The 4th and final phase to evaluate how the project went, and record any lessons learned. Then a formal hand over to the operational team, supported by members of the project team during the first few weeks.

                                 Types of Automated Storage Systems to Consider

Warehouse type	Application
Single deep automated storage	large range of SKU's or special access requirements
Double deep automated storage	large range of SKU's but variable numbers of each
High density automated storage	low to medium range of SKU's
Flow through automated storage	high turnover performance while keeping to FIFO principles