How to name warehouse locations so pickers never get lost

One pattern, from big to small

Name locations from the largest unit to the smallest: area, aisle, bay, level, then bin or position if you need it. A code like A-03-2 reads as aisle A, bay 3, level 2, and anyone who has learned one location can find any other.

• Use letters for aisles and numbers for bays and levels, or the other way round, but never mix within a level.
• Pad numbers (01 to 12, not 1 to 12) so codes sort in the right order on screens and reports.
• Number levels from the floor up, so level 1 is always the one you can reach.
• Keep codes short: they're read on a scanner screen and called out across the floor.
• Give special places their own short codes: GI for goods in, QC for quarantine, RET for returns, DESP for dispatch.

Decide which locations hold stock

An aisle or a bay is a place to walk to; a level or a bin is a place stock sits. Only the smallest units should hold stock, so every unit of every item has one exact address.

Pick faces and bulk

Keep fast-moving items at easy-reach pick faces near dispatch, and their back-up stock in bulk locations higher up or further away. Set a minimum and maximum for each pick face, and top it up from bulk before it runs dry, rather than sending pickers to the bulk racks.

Walk order

Number locations in the order a picker walks past them. Many warehouses snake: up one side of an aisle and down the next, so a pick list sorted by location code is also the shortest walk.

Labels

Print a barcode label for every location that holds stock, with the code in large type under it. Scanning the location before picking from it catches most wrong picks before they leave the building.