An important analysis of the data concerns the assignment of items to specific storage and picking systems and answers questions such as: Which items are suitable to be stored in a shuttle warehouse? Which ones make sense to repack in standard plastic containers, which ones do you leave in the original boxes? Which items are picked directly from pallet? Which articles are not suitable for automatic transport on conveyor systems due to their properties?
System selection, system sizing and system fitting analysis are interdependent. One usually starts with a qualitative system selection analyzses the product fit based on the raw data available. The results lead either to a refined dimensioning of the selected systems or to the realization that the selected systems are not suitable for the selected products and the resulting material flow.
A system assignment can be either permanent, i.e. an article is assigned to exactly one system, stored in this system and picked from this system, or per order or even order line, i.e. the article is available in several storage systems at the same time and can be picked from one or the other system depending on the composition of the order or order line. For example, order lines with a large quantity are often picked from a manual warehouse and smaller order lines are picked from a goods-to-person system.
Figuratively, it can be imagined that during system assignment, a decision tree is run through for each article or each order line, which determines in which system an article is to be stored and picked.