Types of Warehouse Layouts

There are two main approaches of the plan of material flows. They are the ‘U’ flow and ‘Through’ flow.

U Flow (or Cross Flow) Warehouse Layout

A ‘U’ flow occurs when the goods receipt and dispatch functions are located at the same end/side of a warehouse building.
Products flow in at receiving, move in to storage in the back of the warehouse, and then to shipping, which is located at the adjacent to receiving on the same side of the building. Items with higher throughput level are located closer to the located closer to the loading bays.

Advantages of ‘U’ Flow

Excellent utilization of dock resources because the receiving and shipping processes can share dock doors
Facilitating cross-docking because the receiving and shipping docks are adjacent to one another and may be co-mingled
Excellent lift truck utilization because put away and retrieval trips are easily combined and because the storage locations closest to the receiving and shipping docks are natural locations to house fast moving items
Yields excellent security because there is a single side of the building used for entry and exit

Through Flow Warehouse Layout

In this layout, materials inwards and materials outwards are on opposite sides of the warehouse building.
Products flow in at receiving, move into storage, picking area and then the marshalling and despatch area in a straight line.
All items must therefore travel full length of the warehouse.
The layout also requires separate materials inwards and materials outwards management with dual yard access and this doubles the internal bay areas.
Items with a higher throughput level are located at the center of the warehouse because the total distance travelled would be shorter.

‘Through’ flow can be used when:

When there is a risk of interference or confusion between goods in and goods out
When goods inwards vehicles and dispatch vehicles are very different; for example differences in platform height or nature of unit load
When a warehouse is connected to a production plan