RESULTS OF THE STUDY

4.1 FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The observations of the researcher has lead to the following findings :

The ratio between gross are and net area is 88.9% whereas the ratio between gross area
and common area is 11.1%

Within the stores area selected for conducting the study it is seen that type 2 rack is more
in use as compared to type 1 rack as the latter has a smaller capacity as compared to the
former type. Type 2 rack can contain 42 pallets and 216 bins whereas type 1 rack can
contain only 21 pallets and 108 bins.

Space utilization rate for the space chosen for the study as a whole which includes the
usable area is as given below
=
=
=

Space utilization rate by the Material Handling Equipments:

=
=
=

Area occupied by the racks/ net area *100

241.30m^2/575.01m^2 * 100
41.96%

Area used for MHE/ net area * 100

333.71m^2 /575.01m^2 * 100
58.04%

With the redesigning of the bin storage capacity of racks used On the whole with respect
to the 6 columns the total bins that could be stored would work out to be 1512 as against
1296 in the existing set-up.

4.2. SUGGESTIONS
PROBLEM IDENTIFIED FOR THE STUDY

The standard ratio to be followed for the store in automobile industry is 60:40(source :
George Worthington 1961 factory-vol119-page99 (http://books.google.co.in/ books?id
=GHRWAAAAYAAJ))
In the Visteon Stores the existing space utilization ratio is : 41.96 : 58.03
Racks from 4-5,5-6,6-7,7-8,8-9 & 9-10 are having 3.5m space each for fork lift movement
with the top 3 rows are having pallet cargos

In the light of the above problem identified the following suggestions are put forth:

Give separate racks for the palletized cargos .

Racks from 1 to 4 are in proper utilization.
Similarly racks from 5 to 10 can also be utilized properly by redesigning the racks.

COMPARISON OF THE EXISTING USEABLE AREA AND

REDESIGNED USABLE AREA
Usable area
Net area
Percentage of usable area to net area

Existing
241.3m^2
575.01m^2
41.96%

Redesigned
323.98m^2
593.01m^2
54.63%

COMPARISON OF THE EXISTING MHE AREA AND

REDESIGNED MHE AREA
Existing

Redesigned

MHE area

333.71m^2

269.03m^2

Net area

575.01m^2

593.01m^2

Percentage of MHE area to net area

58.08%

45.36%

CONSOLIDATION OF THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY WITH RESPECT TO

REDESIGNING OF STORES LAYOUT
Description
Usable area
Utilization rate
MHE Area
Space used by MHE
Bins Stored

Before
241.3m^2
41.96%
333.71 m^2
58.08%
1296

After
323.98 m^2
54.63%
269.03 m^2
45.36%
1604

INTRODUCTION

The study titled Space Utilization in Stores has been undertaken on behalf of Visteon
Automotive India Private Ltd. Chennai. Visteon Chennai is one of the most renowned outlets.
They are situated in what is also called 'New Chennai'. The place has a vast industrial
development including BMW and Ford car factories situated not more than a mile away. Infosys
another software giant is situated in the area. The area has good facilities for those traveling to or
from the company. There is a railway station, a bus stand, a health care center, police station,
electricity and post office. Apart from all the industrial establishments the place also has
educational ones too. The company here deals with Compressors, Condensers, Fans, Inter
Coolers, Radiators and Shroud Assemblies.
The study is limited to a part of the stores with the intention of identifying ways of
saving on space so as to maximise space utilistiaon which in turn could lead to effeiciency in
sores operations and savings for the company as a whole.
Store is a place where excess material is kept which will be used as and when required.
Loss of items, deterioration, obsolescence and inadequacy (of what is stored to what is needed)
are treated as part of life.
Store management is to receive materials to protect them while in storage from damage
and unauthorized removal, to issue the material in the right quantities, at the right time to the
right place and to provide these services promptly at least cost.
In the chain of internal customers and suppliers, stores have several internal customers.
As a matter of fact all functions of management are internal customers to stores. Customers as
usual expect quality cost and delivery from every supplier.

Stores also have to deliver these

customers expectations. In the process of discharging this obligation, stores performs some
activities that are the functions of stories as given below.
Stores management has a purpose, which is to house materials in a safe, clean, secure
and organized environment. For many of our clients, these adjectives simply dont apply. But
they should, and thats part of the problem. You can have the best people and the best processes,

but without a well-controlled and well-managed storeroom, youll experience inefficiencies and
other potential pitfalls that will hamper your ability to achieve the overall mission of Materials
Management. Lets examine some of the situations we run into and give a few examples to
illustrate the point.
Infrastructure
One of the fundamental challenges we find is the condition of the storeroom facility
itself. Many times the warehouse is nothing more than a building that was recently cleaned out
or even abandoned. Maybe it started innocently as simply a place to store overflow materials. It
may never have been intended to be a functional storeroom. There may be holes in the roof,
broken windows, missing doors, poor lighting, and faulty or nonexistent heating, air conditioning
or humidity controls. Storing materials in these conditions isnt a whole lot better than just
leaving them completely unprotected out in the open environment. Dust, dirt, corrosion and other
factors can degrade the quality of the materials to the point where they are at best compromised,
and at worst totally unusable.
Location
Just because space is available somewhere doesnt mean its a great idea to utilize it for
stocking material. Having too great a distance between the storeroom and where parts are needed
can introduce inherent delays due to excessive travel time for Stores/Logistics personnel and
highly paid craftsmen, not to mention the opportunity for materials to get lost or damaged in
transit.
Accessibility
If anyone can get into your storeroom whenever they want, then you probably dont have
the necessary Controls in place to ensure that materials are properly handled, effectively
managed and accurately checked out. This can cause avoidable stock outs (right quantity),
which in turn can lead to expensive, expedited Acquisition, and unnecessary delays in
completing critical maintenance work. All of these result in significant, increased cost to the
organization.

Physical Layout
The physical layout of the warehouse may introduce more potential inefficiencies into the
Materials Management operation than anything else. The first question to ask yourself is, Is my
storeroom set up for optimal material flow? That involves several considerations:
1.

Does material move quickly between areas (i.e. from the Receiving dock to Incoming
Inspection to Stores to Kitting to Shipping)?

2.

Does material move efficiently within each individual area? In other words, is there
adequate aisle space for people and handling equipment; are there a lot of dead ends; have
obstacles been removed?

CONCLUSION
The overall aim of this research was to explore the impact of redesign of stores layout with
rspect to savings both in terms of space and cost. This it is hoped would help the management of
Visteon

to imrpove its efficiency in terms of space utilization and cost minimisation.

The key design parameters for material flow efficiency of the plant found to be an optimal
storage layout, effective conveyance MHE utilsiatiuon.
As a result of this research project a simple resdeisnging has been done with the above
objective sin mind.