Exploration: Nike "Top Secret Warehouse"

In early 2011, Nike China Logistics Center (CLC) was opened in Taicang, Jiangsu, which is also the seventh and second largest logistics center in the world. When Nike's annual sales in Greater China reached 1.864 billion U.S. dollars (financial report disclosed figures for December 2009 to November 2010), what are its top priority and the most important thing that should be done? Not a brand, not a marketing, but a powerful logistics support system that can efficiently manage inventory and quickly replenish stocks.

This giant box has a construction area of ​​200,000 square meters, has more than 100,000 pallets of goods, and has an annual handling capacity of more than 240 million pieces, and it can satisfy 79 container truck loading and unloading. More importantly, Nike will use this to shorten the delivery time by 15% - it will take only a few hours for a single item to go from the store to the delivery.

Giant central processor

This is like a giant central processor. The basis for sorting and managing all merchandise relies on powerful digital acquisition and processing capabilities. All products are embedded with electronic tags and scanned one by one. Workers sort and sort deliveries according to the information on the electronic display. Their information is connected to Nike globally through a dedicated data port, and full shared data is fed back to relevant departments every day. Massive information is so numerous that the number of codes needed for computers is almost as much as Amazon, the world's largest shopping site. This is where the logistics experts turn their love of numbers and technology into results.

“This world-class logistics warehouse uses the industry's most advanced technology, many of which are pioneered and unique to Nike,” said Hans van Alebeek, vice president of global operations at Nike, speaking to reporters. . Including a total of 9 kilometers of conveyor belts, sequential pickers, radio frequency scanners, automated warehouse management systems, and many other logistics technologies and equipment, this warehouse has reached the three indicators of distribution efficiency, throughput and elasticity The highest level in the world.

Smart world

This Nike's first large-scale logistics center in China has two buildings, which store shoes and clothing separately, and are connected by a conveyor belt device. The storage area is divided into two major units: the whole box area and the tray area, and the bulk pallet area is distributed among them. If a large order arrives, the FCL area can be directly delivered; small orders can be picked up directly from bulk goods in the pallet area. According to the distribution and sorting requirements, the clothing distribution floor is divided into three layers: the top floor has 45,000 shelf areas with independent coding, the second floor is two automatic sorting systems, and the first floor is a packaging and loading distribution area.

Surprisingly, the coding of the top shelf area with 45,000 independent codes is in fact not lawless. This is mainly to prevent operators from memorizing the codes due to frequent operations and thus causing misuse. The picking operator uses the machine's voice system to talk to the computer to check the inventory information. Before the goods are picked up, the automatic control system will inform the operator of the pickup area. After the operator arrives, the shelf area code and the picking of the goods will be reported to the computer system through the microphone and headphones. Confirm the quantity. This set of speech recognition system was independently developed by Nike. It can recognize national languages, even including dialects, and the system will collect and record the audio information of each operator in advance. Just in case, Nike is equipped with an emergency device. Once the voice recognition system fails, the clerk can use the handheld scanning device to save the urgency. This is another use of the shelf code.

At the same time, the angles of these shelves are ergonomically designed to minimize the strain on employees' lumbar muscles. Nike stipulates that in the case of an abundance of shelves, the goods must first exist in the middle layer to facilitate employees to pick up the goods. At the bottom of the shelf, the gap between the bottom shelf and the floor can accommodate a temporary expansion of the shelves, allowing them to store materials at the peak of delivery.

The storage area on the top floor of the CLC3 building is as high as more than 10 meters. To maximize space utilization and increase cargo capacity, Nike uses a narrow roadway system. The width of the roadway between shelves is also compressed to the minimum, which is almost the same as the width of a forklift truck. Nike under the floor of a special truck for towing a magnetic wire harness installation. This intelligent guidance system allows the driver to enter the picking lane with the most accurate driving attitude under the automatic guidance of the magnetic field lines, completely avoiding any collision. In the automatic guided picking, the forklift can only go straight along the distribution of the magnetic wire straight before and after, and will not swing; pick up the car is completed, turn off the magnetic wire switch, the truck can turn left and right.

The general flow of CLC with delivery products is: receiving orders, distinguishing the size of orders, picking up goods in warehouses. In the storage area, the whole box of order goods is transported to the 2nd floor sorting area through the conveyor belt. The operator and the conveyor belt will be checked and sorted twice; the balance of the order goods will be manually replenished by the operator on the 3rd floor, and the automatic sorter will inspect and load the goods. After the box, it was transported to the 1st floor for scanning, loading, and shipping.

The most critical element in the operation process is accuracy. In the case of garment sorting, when the entire box of goods on the 3rd floor storage area is delivered to the 2nd floor via the conveyor, the operator scans the label by hand-held scanning equipment. The position and height of all goods labels are strictly regulated to improve the checking efficiency. After correcting the check, during the process of transporting the conveyor to the 1st floor, scanning equipment was scanned every few meters along the way and the position information was recorded. This information is in turn connected to automated sorting equipment distributed across the functional areas of the logistics center, so that products can be quickly transferred to different operating areas. Once the sorting is incorrect, the belt will automatically throw out the wrong goods and enter the special channel to be handled by special personnel.

When the goods pass through the layer check, and the sorting comes to the packing link, the CLC system will automatically print a label of the goods, clearly indicating the item number and the number of items. The computer can also estimate the volume of the goods and prompt the operator which type of package is most appropriate.

In addition to checking the number of items and the number of codes, the packing operator has to attach the label of the goods to the specified position, which is convenient for the next step of the machine or manual check and verification. Before loading and unloading, the warehousing management system conducts information screening again. According to the time and distribution requirements of the orders, different modes of transportation and multi-level logistics networks are adopted to ensure that the products are delivered efficiently, accurately, timely, and at the lowest cost.

What happens if there is a fire? CLC avoided this at the beginning of design. A total of over 220 air detectors were installed here. Once a fire broke out, the automatic alarm system responded and opened the sprinkler system. Outside the storage area, Nike has also set up a "firewall" so that even if there is a fire, the floors will only collapse in a certain direction, guaranteeing that another independent area is safe and sound. In the center of the two walls, the CLC has set up firefighter rescue channels and evacuation walkways. The latter also has a special positive pressure air supply system that will only emit smoke according to specific air ducts and will not harm personal safety.