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04/16/2025

Maximize Warehouse Efficiency: The GEODIS Approach to Optimization

Strategic slotting and intelligent wave optimization are revolutionizing warehouse efficiency. Learn how GEODIS delivers 15-60% performance gains with our innovative logistics approach.

In today's competitive logistics landscape, warehouse efficiency directly impacts your bottom line. The most striking challenge? Pickers can spend up to 70% of their working time simply walking from one location to another. This travel time translates directly into increased labor costs and reduced throughput capacity. 

 

Relying on conventional warehouse management approaches limits optimization and creates inefficiencies that extend beyond the warehouse floor, affecting your ability to meet service level agreements and ultimately impacting customer satisfaction.

 

At GEODIS, we've developed an integrated approach to warehouse optimization that resolves these fundamental challenges, delivering efficiency improvements between 15% to 60% — even well-organized facilities see significant gains.

Key takeaways

 

  • Warehouse pickers typically spend 60-70% of their time walking between locations, creating a significant opportunity for efficiency improvements
  • The GEODIS integrated approach combines slotting optimization (placing inventory strategically) with wave pick optimization (intelligently grouping orders)
  • Our pilot implementations show 15-60% overall efficiency improvements, with up to 47% reduction in aisle visits per task
  • Quick implementation in just 2-3 weeks per component with no additional cost for GEODIS clients
  • Enhanced efficiency translates directly to reduced costs, increased throughput, and improved ability to meet service level agreements
  • Our approach works with both traditional and automated picking environments, including facilities using Locus robots

The warehouse efficiency challenge

Modern warehouses face mounting pressures from multiple directions. Rising customer expectations for faster delivery, accurate order fulfillment, and greater product availability drive the need for more efficient operations. At the same time, operational pressures require greater cost control and workforce optimization.

 

Traditional warehouse management approaches create significant inefficiencies:

 

  • Inefficient inventory placement leading to excessive travel time
  • Suboptimal order batching resulting in redundant picking paths
  • Labor allocation that doesn't match actual operational needs
  • Underutilization of prime warehouse space with slow-moving inventory
  • Inability to quickly adapt to changing order patterns and volumes

 

These challenges directly affect your fulfillment speed, operating costs, service level compliance, and scalability. For a comprehensive analysis of these challenges and how our integrated solutions address them, read our article "Modern Warehouse Challenges and Optimization."

Struggling with warehouse inefficiencies? Contact our logistics experts to discover how GEODIS can optimize your operations and improve your bottom line. Get in touch with GEODIS.

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The GEODIS integrated optimization approach

Our approach combines two powerful, complementary optimization components that work together to transform warehouse operations.

 

Strategic Slotting Optimization

Slotting optimization focuses on placing the right item in the right location at the right time. We use advanced data analysis to assign locations to SKUs based on movement patterns, order frequency, and operational needs. This optimizes your inventory layout and warehouse space usage by:

 

  • Placing high-velocity items in prime picking locations near outbound areas
  • Grouping complementary items that are frequently ordered together
  • Relocating slow and dead movers from valuable pick-front real estate
  • Adapting to seasonal changes and new product introductions

 

Intelligent Wave Pick Optimization

While slotting optimization focuses on where items are placed, wave pick optimization addresses how orders are grouped and picked. Our system intelligently groups orders to minimize travel time and maximize picking efficiency by:

 

  • Minimizing aisle visits for each picking route
  • Maximizing the items picked per location visited
  • Balancing workload across available pickers
  • Adapting to changing order patterns throughout the day

 

Combining these components creates a complementary effect that dramatically improves overall warehouse performance. Good slotting without good waving still results in suboptimal picking groups, while good waving without good slotting means items aren't optimally placed. Dive deeper into our methodology in our detailed article "Warehouse Optimization: Slotting & Wave Pick Improvement."

Ready to transform your warehouse efficiency? Our experts can show you how our proven optimization solutions can deliver for your operation. Get in touch with GEODIS.

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Real-World Results

Our warehouse optimization approach isn't theoretical—it's delivering measurable results for GEODIS clients today. Our pilot implementations show significant improvements across key warehouse metrics:

 

  • 15-60% overall efficiency improvements
  • Up to 47% reduction in aisle visits per task
  • Up to 30% improvement in units per hour processed
  • Up to 10% reduction in task count
  • Up to 18% increase in orders per task

 

These operational improvements translate directly to business benefits:

 

  • Reduced costs by optimizing picker movement
  • Increased throughput capacity without additional resources
  • Enhanced ability to meet service-level agreements
  • Better usage of valuable warehouse space
  • Improved visibility through comprehensive performance dashboards

 

Explore real-world case studies and implementation details in our article "Real-World Warehouse Optimization: Results & Impact."

 

Explore Our Warehouse Optimization Series

Want to learn more about our warehouse optimization approach? Explore these in-depth articles:

 

How GEODIS can help

GEODIS offers a streamlined implementation process to optimize your warehousing in just 2-3 weeks per component:

 

  1. We analyze your historical order data and warehouse layout
     
  2. Our experts configure the solution to your specific operation
     
  3. We implement the optimizations with minimal disruption to ongoing operations
     
  4. We provide ongoing support and continuous refinement

 

Our warehouse optimization solution is designed to accommodate the unique characteristics of various facilities, whether you use traditional racking, automated storage and retrieval systems, or a combination of storage types. The system uses existing picking sequences and zone designations as the foundation for optimization, requiring no physical reconfiguration of your warehouse.

 

To get started with warehouse optimization, speak to your GEODIS account manager. Not a GEODIS client yet? Get in touch with us and see how we can deliver for you. 

Contact us

FAQs on warehouse optimization

Warehouse optimization is the process of improving warehouse operations through strategic inventory placement and efficient order processing techniques to reduce travel time, increase throughput, and lower operational costs.

Our approach combines slotting optimization (placing inventory strategically based on movement patterns) with wave pick optimization (intelligently grouping orders to minimize travel distance). These components work together to create substantial efficiency improvements.

Our implementations typically show efficiency improvements ranging from 15% to 60%, depending on your current warehouse organization. Even well-organized facilities see 15-20% gains, while less optimized operations experience more significant improvements.

Each component (slotting and wave optimization) takes just 2-3 weeks to implement. You can implement both components simultaneously or sequentially, depending on your priorities.

No. Our solution is designed to work alongside your existing operations with minimal disruption. The system uses your current warehouse layout and picking methodologies as the foundation for optimization.

Yes. Our solution is compatible with both traditional and automated picking environments, including facilities using Locus robots. For automated environments, we adapt our approach to address unique challenges like robot congestion.

We need historical order data (ideally 52 weeks), warehouse layout information, current location assignments, and SKU master data. For new clients without historical data, we can work with information from your previous providers

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Paul Maplesden

Lead Content Strategist

Paul deeply researches logistics and supply chain topics to create helpful, informative content for our US audience. Read Paul's work in the GEODIS blog, our in-depth GEODIS Insights reports, and our case studies and white papers.
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