A STUDY ON THE

“STUDY ON IMPROVEMENT OF WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT”

Work done at
RUBCO RCM DIVISION, PAMPADY

Report Submitted in the partial fulfilment of the requirements of

Master of Business Administration,
School of Management Studies,
Cochin University of Science and Technology

Submitted by

JISHNU PRASAD A.
Reg. No. 17MSMB103
MBA (FT) 2017-2019

Under the Guidance of

Prof. (Dr.) JAGATHY RAJ V. P.

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
APRIL 2019

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to put to record my sincere thanks to all who enlightened my path
towards the successful completion of this project. At the very outset, I thank the almighty for
his abundant blessing showered on me to follow the path of success in easy attempt of our life.

I am extremely thankful to, Dr. D. Mavoothu, Director, School of Management Studies,

Cochin University of Science and Technology for providing me with this opportunity and for
all its cooperation and contribution.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my guide, Prof. (Dr.) Jagathy Raj V. P. who was
always there to clear my doubts and without his help this project would not have been
completed successfully.

I have received tremendous support and guidance from the professors of School of
Management Studies, CUSAT for the successful completion of the Independent Research
Study.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. P. K. Vinod, Production Manager,

RUBCO RCM division, Poothakuzhy, for being my external guide and supporting me
throughout the project. I would also like to express my thanks to Mr. A. Mohanakrishnan,
General Manager, RUBCO R.C.M division and Mr. P. C. Ajith Kumar, Administrative cum
Personnel Manager, RUBCO R.C.M. division for all the help and support provided in the
company.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my parents and friends who have helped me for
doing this project.

JISHNU PRASAD A.

2
ABSTRACT

RUBCO Rubberised coir mattress division requires changes and improvement of warehousing
techniques in order to improve their warehousing capacity maximization. The changes mainly arise
from following areas from the need of improvement of warehousing technique that is mainly by
providing a properly designed arrangement system, to finding an efficient system or technology to
make the identification and utilization of the complete mattresses produced and also Enhancing and
thereby maximizing the capacity effectively. This research has focused on identifying and
improving the inefficiencies related to the warehouse management processes, developing an
improved and efficient technique for the arrangement of finished goods inventory, and also
providing a proper system or technology to make identification picking storage and despatch of
mattresses effectively and efficiently.

We started the research by investigating and analyzing the existing warehousing processes. Based
on the analysis an improper arrangement of the RCM and inexistence of a proper system for
identifying and despatching the mattresses were identified. An improved and efficient management
system and a proper technology is used to eliminate the bottle necks.

3
CONTENTS

Chapter Contents Page No.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i
ABSTRACT ii
CONTENTS iii
LIST OF FIGURES v
LIST OF TABLES vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 General Background 1
1.2 Problem Definition 1
1.3 Objectives Of The Study 2
1.4 Scope Of The Study 3
1.5 Research Methodology 3
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 13
3 COMPANY PROFILE 21
3.1 Introduction 21
3.2 Objective 21
3.3 Administration And Management 22
3.4 Promoters 23
3.5 Rubco Group Of Undertakings 26
3.6 Rubco Rubberized Coir Mattress Division 26
3.7 Product Profile 26
4 DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY 27
5 WAREHOUSE OPERATIONS 28
5.1 Warehousing process 28
5.2 Description of existing situation 28
5.3 Introduction 28
5.3.1 Racking of finished product 29

4
 5.4 Absence of a real time tracker 31
6 PROPOSED SOLUTIONS 33
6.1 Proposed solutions
6.2 Proposing RFID
6.2.1 How it works in a mattress industry 34
7 EVALUATION 37
7.1 Evaluation of RFID 39
7.2 Racking analysis evaluation 39
8 SUGGESTIONS 40
9 CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS 41
10 REFERENCES 42

5
LIST OF FIGURES

Fig Figures Page No.

No.
1.1 Order and sales during 2014 – 2017 11
5..1 Manual Lifting of mattresses 30
5..2 Forklifting of mattresses 30
6.1 Horizontal stacking 33
6.2 Vertical multilayer 33
6.3 RFID tagged mattresses 33
6.4 RFID system 35
7.1 RFID in assembly line 38
7.2 RFID in assembly line 38
7.3 Fork lifting 39

6
LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page No.

3.1 Category wise employee details 24

3.2 Employee Shift Timing 25
3.3 Different models of mattresses and pillows 26

7
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

WIP- WORK IN PROCESS

RCM- RUBBERISED COIR MATTRESS

FGS – FINISHED GOOD STORAGE

FIFO-FIRST IN FIRST OUT

LIFO-LAST IN FIRST OUT

8
Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND

This project is aimed at analyzing the need to improve the inefficiencies in the existing
Warehouse management system, from the implementation of a new and effective system to
utilizing the capacity of the warehouse to the maximum, and from the need to build new
facilities in view of expanding some of the existing facilities in Rubber Cooperation Limited
(RUBCO) Rubberized Coir Mattress (RCM) division Pampady.

Through a careful analysis of warehouse management , major bottlenecks and basic problem
of inability of identifying and controlling the mattress flow with in the flowchain and thereby
help in improving warehouse efficiency demands as well as inventory inaccuracy , problem of
being out of stock and the problem of mattresses being unsaleable and also in enhancing the
inventory visibility.

Though the company almost manages to meet with its demand regularly, there are a high
number of mattresses which go unnoticed due to the lack of a system for identifying the
mattresses rather than manual tracking as this leads to the decrease in efficiency due to the
failure in detecting all of the RCM in the warehouse.

In order to maximize the utilization of warehouse the proper method of arrangement of the
mattresses needs to be done and though it is not possible to stack mattresses according to the
varities since each variety has varying dimensions ,hence a proper stacking method shall be
founded out. So hence if an improved stacking design is arranged it shall effectively maximize
the supply chain operations.

RUBCO RCM division is one of the leading mattress industry in Kerala. The company now
faces stiff competition from other leading mattress manufacturers in the country. Main problem
associated with the company is the incapability to meet the market demand for the product.
From observation it was found that due tone of the factors leading to this problem was
9
ineffective capacity management of the warehouse and also absence of a proper system to
measure the flow of supply chain which leads to overstockage of inventory as well as reducing
the visibility of the inventory. Avoiding this could improve the overall system performance. In
this project efforts are put to reduce the Warehouse inefficiencies and enhance production.

10
 1.2 PROBLEM DEFINITION

Every organization needs to have an efficient warehouse management system inorder to make
the whole supply chain process work effectively. The failure or absence of a proper system or
technology for the identification and movement of the RCM is one of the major bottleneck
faced by RUBCO. When a company starts functioning, most of the current issues might not
have foreseen. Reduced lifecycle of products, escalating cost of production, labour turnover,
unexpected demand variation, absenteeism, low productivity and inefficient process flow, low
rate of return of investment, issues related to economic recession etc. are some of the problem
faced by today's organizations. RUBCO is not an exception. One of the major problem faced
by RUBCO is identified as the company's incapability to Properly identify
,control and despatch the flow of the mattresses produced and failure to detect where each
varities of mattresses are kept rather than manual tracking. In RUBCO each of the mattresses
produced are being sticked with a piece of paper which shows the details regarding the
dimensions, type ,cost and variety of products .So once this chart gets lost all the informations
needs to be accessed again and hence this affects the warehouse storage and will inturn
influence the supply chain operations. The improper warehouse management system has been
identified as the major problem faced by the company and the project work is an attempt to
understand the cause of this ineffective system and to provide recommendations for
implementation so that much better material flow can be achieved. Order and sales of the
mattress in RUBCO RCM division during 2014-2017 is shown in Fig 1.1

180000 162532
149522 153586
160000 145913
140000 126632 124816
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
2014 -2015 2015-2016 2016-2017

Sales Order

11
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

•To determine the effectiveness of the existing warehouse management system and to suggest ways
to eliminate inventory inefficiency.
•To identify the major bottlenecks and Analyse cause of low inventory visibility and suggest proper
system to improve the visibility.
•To recommend way to enhance the warehouse management.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study is confined to ware housing process of the industry Study will improve the inventory
visibility as well as provide measure for real time tracking of mattresses and will in turn result
in increased productivity of the firm. It will help to attain market demand for the product and
better customer satisfaction
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study is based on primary and secondary data collected from the RUBCO RCM Division
Pampady .The basic warehouse management and techniques used were studied and the effectiveness
of such systems were analyzed.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

IDENTIFICATION OF
OBJECTIVES

LITERATURE REVIEW
ZZZOBJECTIVES

SECONDARY DATA
CCOLLECTION

EXISTING PROBLEM AND

PROPOSED SOLUTION

ANALYSING THE
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

SUGGESTIONS FOR
FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

12
FINDINGS AND
CONCLUSION
Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Warehousing takes up to between 2% and 5% of the cost of sales of a corporation and with
today’s highly competitive global business environment organizations are emphasizing on
Return on Assets, and hence minimizing warehousing costs has become an important business
issue. Many firms are automating their basic warehousing functions to achieve the increase in
throughput rates or inventory turns required for their warehousing operations to be cost effective.

It is necessary to allocate warehouse resources efficiently and effectively to enhance the

productivity and reduce the operation costs of the warehouse . One vital area determining the
efficiency of warehouse is the determination of the proper storage locations for potentially
thousands of products in a warehouse. Various factors affecting the storage assignment like order
picking method, size and layout of the storage system, material handling system, product
characteristics, demand trends, turnover rates and space requirements are been extensively
studied. It has been suggested that selecting appropriate storage assignment policies (i.e. random,
dedicated or class-based) and routing methods (i.e. transversal, return or combined) with regards
to above factors is a possible solution to improve the efficiency . Various decision support
models and solution algorithms have also been established to solve warehouse operation
planning problems .

The use of information systems for warehouse management is studied extensively in literature.
Complexity of warehouse management is indicated among others by amount and heterogeneity
of handled products, the extent of overlap between them, amount and type of technology as well
as characteristics of associated processes. As the complexity increases it becomes necessary to
use Warehouse management systems for handling warehouse resources and to monitor
warehouse operations. The warehouses with a high amount of processed order lines and amount
of stock keeping units will be best supported by customized software. It is difficult to update
daily operations of inventory level, locations of forklifts and stock keeping units (SKUs) in
realtime by using the bar-code-based or manual based management systemWith the advent of
low-cost RFID tags designed to be safe for use around food, coupled with reader and antenna
engineering and the development of proprietary software solutions, passive UHF deployments
13
are moving into the grocery market. Technology companies Nordic ID and Avery Dennison have
been demonstrating that RFID can reliably track food at stores, and thereby enable smart markets
and self-checkout.
Avery and Nordic ID predict that RFID deployments in the grocery market may follow a similar
trajectory to RFID use in fashion, for which the technology has become commonplace, with tags
often applied at the point of manufacture.

Thomas Chabot, Rahma Lahyani, Leandro C. Coelho and Jacques Renaud study order picking
routing in their paper Order Picking Problems under Weight, Fragility and Category Constraints.
They include product-specific constraints that are often neglected, such as weight, fragility and
category constraints. They present four heuristic methods, including extensions of the classical
largest gap, midpoint and S-shape heuristics, as well an adaptive large neighbourhood search
algorithm. They show their ALNS method outperforms the other heuristics and that it has tight
gaps with two mathematical models.
To meet strict delivery deadlines in a volatile demand environment such as e-commerce, a good
plan of worker requirements is crucial. Teun van Gils, Katrien Ramaekers, An Caris and Mario
Cools propose time series-based models to accurately forecast the daily number of order lines in
a warehouse, in their paper The Use of Time Series Forecasting in Zone Order Picking Systems
to Predict Order Pickers’ Workload. Using a real case study, they show that such information
can be very useful to estimate the number of order pickers and also assign them to pick zones.

E-commerce warehouse operations have to cope with large fluctuations in customer order
volumes and a large proportion of product returns. Hence, optimal policies for traditional manual
warehouses may not be suitable for e-commerce warehouses. To address this gap, Albert H.
Schrotenboer, Susanne Wruck, Kees Jan Roodbergen, Marjolein Veenstra and Arjan S. Dijkstra
study the optimal pick routes in their paper titled Order Picker Routing with Product Returns
and Interaction Delays using a hybrid genetic algorithm. The algorithm determines routes for
simultaneous pickup of products in response to consumers’ orders and delivery of returned
products to storage locations.

Order picker discomfort is of significant concern in manual order picking process and is often
ignored while identifying the best item storage location. José A. Larco Martinelli, René B.M. De
Koster, Kees Jan Roodbergen and Jan Dul attempt to address this gap in their paper

14
titled Managing Warehouse Efficiency and Worker Discomfort through Enhanced Storage
Assignment Decisions. They propose an elegant two-stage solution methodology to address these
dual objectives. In the first stage, they build data-driven empirical models for estimating cycle
times and workers’ discomfort. In the second stage, the empirical models are adopted to
formulate a bi-objective assignment problem for assigning products to storage locations. The
model is tested for two real facilities.

Puzzle-based storage systems are a new type of automated storage systems that allow storage of
unit loads in a rack on a very small footprint with individual accessibility of all loads. Such
systems are already adopted for dense parking, dense storage in vessels and new warehousing
applications are at the horizon. Masoud Mirzaei, René B.M. De Koster and Nima Zaerpour
develop an optimal method to retrieve two loads simultaneously in their paper titled Modelling
Load Retrievals in Puzzle-Based Storage Systems. They also develop a heuristic approach for
efficiently retrieving more than two loads. Such algorithms hold promise for practice because
they can reduce the travel time by more than 15%
.
Optimising space utilisation is one of the main goals in warehouse design and operation. While
block-stack storage is an inexpensive storage system widely used in manufacturing operations
for storing pallets, the optimal storage layout dimensions under a finite production rate are still
unknown. In their paper titled Optimising Space Utilisation in Block Stacking Warehouses,
Shahab Derhami, Jeffrey S. Smith and Kevin R. Gue propose mathematical models to obtain the
optimal lane depth. They use a simulation model to analyse the layout performance with
stochastic input parameters.

While Van Gils et al. use time series forecasting models to plan order picker capacity under
uncertain demand, Susanne Wruck, Iris F.A. Vis and Jaap Boter propose five different multi-
stage stochastic programming approaches suitable for planning full-time and flexible staff for
order pick activities in their paper Risk Control for Staff Planning in e-commerce Warehouses.
The models that deal with uncertainties are known from their use in financial risk management
and other application areas. Using a Dutch e-commerce warehouse, they show that the multi-
period conditional value at risk appears to be most promising for volatile demand conditions.

Often warehouses will carry products with varying life cycles. This product selection strategy
can have important benefits in terms of smoothing demand and cash flows, but the implications

15
for warehouse operations are often a secondary thought or not considered. Bradley Guthrie,
Pratik Parikh and Nan Kong investigate this issue in Evaluating Warehouse Strategies for Two-
Product Class Distribution Planning for three common distribution strategies and propose an
alternative. The potential benefits are shown through simulation.

While there are several new innovations in automated warehousing systems and technologies,
little is known about the approaches to systematically assess the carbon footprint of warehouse
operations. In the paper titled Environmental Impact of Warehousing: A Scenario Analysis for
the United States, Jörg M. Ries, Eric H. Grosse and Johannes Fichtinger suggest a classification
scheme that enables researchers and practitioners to systematically assess warehouse-related
energy consumption and emissions in order to measure the CO2 footprint of warehouse
operations. In addition, they identify effective emission mitigation strategies for decarbonising
warehousing operations using US warehouse data
.
Automated order fulfilment systems are often difficult to model because there are many
components interacting. Yingying Wu, Chen Zhou, Yaohua Wu and Xiang T. R. Kong in their
paper Zone Merge Sequencing in an Automated Order Picking System tackle this problem for a
zone automated dispensing system used widely in mail order and catalogue order fulfilment.
They formulate a mathematical model and perform sensitivity analysis to characterise the factors
that affect throughput. The model is demonstrated for both simulated and real data and shows
potential room for improvement over current best practices.

Automated warehouses often make use of shuttle-based storage and retrieval systems. Banu Y.
Ekren investigates the design of these systems using graph-based design procedures in the
article Graph-based Solution for Performance Evaluation of Shuttle-Based Storage and Retrieval
System. From the analysis, insights are gained on the number of bays, aisles and tiers for the
rack design with the primary performance metric being average cycle time. A variety of scenarios
are explored via simulation.

Charlie Fine et. al (2006): RFID technology has generated much hype in the last few years.
The major driver for its development has been the tagging of physical objects – people, places,
and things – with single chip radios so they can interface with computers. RFID technology
is both hailed as the key to the ―Internet of Things and condemned as invasive surveillance
technology, and in more extreme circles it is feared as the Mark of the Beast. An RFID system
can be broken down into two key dimensions. The technical infrastructure includes the actual
16
 data capture technology comprised of tags, readers, and transmission medium. The logical
infrastructure refers to the overall identification (ID) scheme used in representing objects.

Ahuja Sanjay and Potti Pavan (2010) : RFID is still in a developing phase and more is in the
pipeline in terms of new applications. Among applications already developed, RFID tags are
being used in clothing for billing and security purposes. RFID tags are embedded inside
animals for tracking purposes. RFID tags embedded in uniforms can be used to know the
number of hours an employee spends to complete a par-ticular task. There are several
associations that are pro-testing against the use of RFID to track people fearing the impact on
people’s social life and privacy.

Matija Bumbak (2005):Considering enormous scale on which RFID will be operating and
considering the fact that it will be present everywhere in our lives it is absolutely necessary for
it to be a secure system. Even though RFID is still not operational on large scale, some
experimental shops, literature written about it is relatively extensive. there are three primary
issues surrounding RFID and the need to protect proprietary information: Protecting data stored
on the tag; Protecting the integrity of the tag (and thus thee product);Securing data related to
the serial number on a tag, which may be stored in a network database.

Kamaran Ahsan et. al (2010): Industries use RFID for various applications such as
personal/vehicle access control, departmental store security, equipment tracking, baggage, fast
food establishments, logistics, etc. The enhancement in RFID technology has brought
advantages that are related to resource optimization, increased efficiency within business

processes, and enhanced customer care, overall improvements in business operations and
healthcare. Other applications includes automatic toll payments, departmental access control
in large buildings. personal and vehicle control in a particular area, security of items which
shouldn’t leave the area, equipment tracking in engineering firms, hospital filing systems.

Srivastav Nandita (2006) : The ―Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic

identification system. RFID uses RF to identify ―tagged‖ items .This data is then collected
and transmitted to a host system using an RF Reader. The data transmitted by the tag may
provide identification or location information, or specifics about the product tagged, such as
price, color, date of purchase; etc.In Bar code the scanner device directs a light beam at the bar
code. The device contains a small sensory reading element. This sensor detects the light being
17
 RFID tags emit unique identifiers, even tags that protect data with cryptographic algorithms
In consequence, a person carrying an RFID tag effectively broadcasts a fixed serial number
to nearby readers, providing a ready vehicle for clandestine physical tracking. Such tracking
is possible even if a fixed tag serial number is random and carries no intrinsic data. The threat
to privacy grows when a tag serial number is combined with personal information.

Cheng Jin and Sung Ho Cho (2012): Collision detection (CD) plays an important role in
determining the efficiency of DFSA-based algorithms because most DFSA-based algorithms
determine the next frame size according to the number of collided slots in the current frame.
Existing CD methods do not respond quickly enough to detect a collision and have difficulty
in distinguishing a collision from noise, resulting in a degradation of system efficiency. CD
scheme based on the EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 protocol to improve CD efficiency. This
scheme enables fast and accurate CD by detecting the number of pulses transmitted by tags.
The effectiveness and practical feasibility of the scheme is verified by simulation and
implementation. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed scheme achieves faster
identification speed than the conventional methods, especially under noise conditions.

Young-Long Chen and Xiao-Zhu Shi (2012) :Health management has become increasingly
important in personal health care in modern life. The system we have designed provides a
method to help facilitate health management through an associated smart phone with Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID), which is a new type of application. This system consists of
medical knowledge and health management. In the application of medical knowledge, we use
the human model as well as the operation of RFID to obtain medical knowledge concerning
human organs. The two main functions of the health management system are medication
reminders and drug identification. The feature of medication reminders allows users to set the
time for taking medication so that patients do not miss taking their medication.

Kochar Barjesh and Chhillar Rajender (2012):Nowadays, the vital parts of the business
programs are the data warehouses and the data mining techniques. Especially these are vital in
the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) application which brings a revolution in business
programs. Manufacturing, the logistics distribution and various stages of supply chains, retail
store and quality management applications are involved in the RFID technology in business. A
large volume of temporal and spatial data is generated by the ubiquitous computing and sensor
networks of RFID and these are often generated with noises and duplicates. The noises and

18
duplicates in the RFID data declare the need of an effective data warehousing system. A novel
data cleaning, transformation and loading technique which makes the data warehousing system
employed for any RFID applications more effective is proposed.

Warehousing can be defined as the storing of products before they are sold, used, or sent to
shops (Cambridge Dictionary 2017). A warehouse is used for two main reasons; to better match
supply with customer demand and for consolidation of products (Bartholdi and Hackman
2011). Ackerman (1997) gives a more detailed view and presents five common functions of a
warehouse; stockpiling, product mixing, consolidation, distribution, and customer satisfaction.
Stockpiling is used when the warehouse works as a reservoir to handle production overflow.
The stockpiling function is mainly needed in two situations, when a company have seasonal
production and level demand, or when a company has level production and seasonal demand.
If a company has product-oriented factories at different locations, product mixing can be used
in a warehouse to combine the items from the different factories, which also includes the
postponement aspect. The consolidation function means that different products or units of one
product are gathered together and use the same transport, which increases the fill rate of the
transports. This is commonly used when a manufacturer pulls supplies from its suppliers, who
sends the items to a consolidation center that gathers supplies from several suppliers.
Distribution is the reverse of consolidation, where a manufacturer sends finished or semi-
finished products to a regional distribution center, before they are transported to their respective
destination and market. The warehouse can also be used to hold inventory just to increase
customer satisfaction through short lead times. According to Arnold et al. (2008) the mission
of a warehouse or the warehousing department of a company is to:
Provide timely customer service.

Keep track of items so they can be found quickly and correctly.

Minimize the total physical effort and thus the cost of moving goods into and out of storage.

Provide communication links with customers.

Block stacking is a common method for the storage of large quantities of palletized and boxed
products. The definition of block stacking is that one or more unit loads are placed into rows,
one or more unit loads deep, stacked one or more units high, forming stacks (Marsh 1979;
Matson and White 1984). One or more stacks are forming a lane (bay), which is the storage
19
area assigned to one or more products or orders. The bays in a block stacking warehouse are
placed next to each other and commonly perpendicular to the aisles, from which trucks are
storing or retrieving products from the bays (Goetschalckx and Ratliff 1991). Block stacking
are common when large quantities of a product are stored, for example paper goods and
household products, where a high space utilization to a low cost is important. Like in most
other warehouses, there are two main decisions to be made with block stacking, the warehouse
design and the storage and retrieval policies, In the block stacking method, there are two
competing objectives, which need to be balanced and implemented according to the warehouse
(Goetschalckx and Ratliff 1991). The first objective is to maximize the space utilization, which
means that the floor space in the warehouse should be used as effective as possible or that the
warehouse should be built as small as possible. The second objective is to minimize the
handling costs in the warehouse, which means the cost of the storage and retrieval of products.

20
Chapter 3

COMPANY PROFILE

3.1INTRODUCTION

RUBCO Rubberized Coir Mattress (RUBCO R.C.M) division is a subsidiary of Kerala State
Rubber Co-operative Limited (RUBCO). RUBCO was established in 1997 and is one of the
major undertakings in the co-operative sector in India. RUBCO group is the largest exporter of
natural rubber in the country today. Even in the domestic market, RUBCO is a major supplier
of natural rubber to all leading rubber based companies in India, led by a professional
management team and supported by a committed workforce. Within a short span of time the
group has entered into various rubber and rubber wood based industries like hawai chappal
with reputed Malaysian technology, cycle tyres and tubes, rubberized coir mattress,
conventional and procured tread rubber, block rubber (SMR), pale latex crepe (PLC), casual
shoes etc.

For last half decade, with a vision to become a global leader in the production of natural rubber
and innovative product development, RUBCO adopts the best and latest processes in the
production. Today, from a single unit company, RUBCO has grown in to Rs.280 crores
conglomerate with well diversified operations and a market presence extending beyond the
boundaries of Kerala. RUBCO manufactures and markets a variety of products from footwear
to furniture, from mattresses to virgin coconut oil. Substantial investments in modern
manufacturing facilities, coupled with well-organized marketing activities have made
RUBCO's product earn a reputation for quality and also significant market shares.

3.2 OBJECTIVE

The objective is to ensure a steady market with remunerative price to rubber growers for their
Natural rubber. Also, RUBCO stands to ensure the welfare of rubber growers, particularly of
Small and marginal segment.

21
3.3 ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

The management of RUBCO consists of efficient and well experienced persons. Sri. V.N.
Vasavan is the Chairman, who is a veteran co-operator and is holding various positions as
Chairman in central and state level co-operative organization. Chartered accountant Sri.
Haridasan P. V. is the Managing Director of RUBCO group.

General Manager - Mr. A. Mohanakrishnan

Administrative cum Personnel officer - Mr. P.C. Ajith Kumar

Production Manager
- Mr. P.K. Vinod

OTHER DIRECTORS

• Mr. Chandran N. (Vice Chairman)


Mr. Anoop Davis Kada

Mr. Bhaskaran M.

Mr. M. V. Koman Nambiar

Mr. Najeeb Muhammed H.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan K.C.

Mr. K. Manoharan

Mrs. Kanjanavally P. V.

Mrs. Sasikala P.V.

• Mrs. Seetha

Mr. Vijaya Das K.V.

The Chairman, Rubber Board, Kottayam.

The Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Trivandrum,

• The President, Kerala State Cooperative Bank, Trivandrum.

22
 3.4 PROMOTERS

Government of Kerala along with the Rubber Board and some district and primary cooperative
banks in Kerala are the promoters of RUBCO. Government of Kerala holds majority of shares.
The shareholders are:
- Government of Kerala

- Rubber Board Kottayam District Co-operative Bank

- Palakkad District Co-operative Bank

- Ernakulam District Co-operative Bank

- Calicut District Co-operative Bank

- Trissur District Co-operative Bank

- Trivandrum District Co-operative Bank

- Kollam District Co-operative Bank

3.5 RUBCO GROUP OF UNDERTAKINGS

- Rubco group of undertakings includes the following

- Rubco Hawai Chappel Division

- Rubco Cycle Tyre and Tube Division

- Rubco Huat Woods Pvt Limited

- Rubco Sreekandapuram Latex Pvt. Limited

- Rubco Sales International Limited

- Rubco Rubberized Coir Mattress Division

- Natural Rubber Trading

RUBCO RUBBERIZED COIR MATTRESS DIVISION

RUBCO rubberized coir mattress division, at Poothakuzhy near Pampady, Kottayam which started
its operation in 2001, is an ambitious project realized with an investment of 260 million, The
manufacturing plants, among the very few in the country to employ advanced Austrian machinery,

23
sourced from DOA (Dr. Otto Angleitner) —Austria, a technology leader in rubberized mattress. The
plant has a capacity of 6000 tons of rubberized coir blocks per annum. It employs 316 persons.
RUBCO rubberized coir mattresses are scientifically designed to provide proper back support without
compromising on comfort. By virtue of their ingenious and construction and the unique 3-D
technology, RUBCO mattresses are firm without being hard and extremely durable. As they do not
sag, they are very comfortable and ensure a healthy and restful sleep. The furnishing section is
equipped with most modern computer controlled machines imported from U.K. and U.S.A. Strict
quality control is observed at every stage of production to ensure that Rubco rubberized coir mattress
always measure to the highest quality. The employee split- up is as follows in Table 3.1

TABLE 3.1

CATEGORIES NO OF WORKERS

Highly skilled 16

Skilled 24

Semi- skilled 21

Unskilled 143

Casual Workers 62

Casual Learners 5

Temporary Workers 1

Office Staff 38

Working Arrangement 6

TOTAL 316

24
 There are three shifts operating in a day. A general shift is also functioning. The
timing are shown in Table 3.2

Table 3.2 Shift Timing

SHIFT TIME

1 7 AM - 3 PM

2 3 PM- 11 PM

3 11 PM -7 AM

GENERAL 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

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 3.5 PRODUCT PROFILE

RUBCO RCM produces a variety of mattresses with a view to attract different customer
segments. products range varies from economy models targeting the low income group to
premium models targeting the upper class. The different models come under 5 different
categories. Pillow are bought and sold along with mattresses. Different models of mattresses
and pillows shown in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3 Different models of mattresses and pillows

PREMIUM STANDARD BUDGET EXCLUSIVE SPRING PILLOWS

RANGE RANGE RANGE RANGE RANGE
Heaven plus Heaven Dreams Relief Nova Soft Touch
ultra
Heaven Plus Safal Dosth Plus Heal Nova Silver Rubco pillow
Hi Tech 9.30 PM Yathri Nova Gold Nano soft
Pillow
Hi Tech Fantasy Traveller Plus Nova Feather
Pillow Top Diamond Touch
Hi Tech Nova Rexine
Natural Platinum pillow
Renova &
Renova Plus
Natural La

26
Chapter 4
DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY

The study is based on primary and secondary data collected from the RUBCO RCM Division
Pampady. The warehouse management system and inventory control techniques were analysed and
accesed to determine the efficiency of the current system.

Primary data for the study is collected from the management and employees of the firm through direct
interviews. Secondary data for the study is collected from the daily production report, shift report,
log book and operation manuals of the company

27
 Chapter 5
WAREHOUSE OPERATIONS

Introduction

5.1 WAREHOUSING PROCESSS

The warehousing process of RUBCO RCM Division is being done on a horizontal single
layer stacking model. And this layer of stacking involves stacking up to a pile of maximum
height of maximum 8 beds horizontally this type of racking process is being maintained at
RUBCO RCM division.

5.2 Description of the Existing Situation

In this chapter, we describe the existing situation in relation with the warehouse management
and the problems related with stacking of the mattresses concerned and the existing system
which is being used for identifying controlling and despatching of the mattresses and lack of
real time tracking of the mattresses which result in inventory inaccuracy and inventory visibility
of mattresses which in turn affects the overall supply chain activities and hence failure to cope
up with the demands.

5.3 Introduction

The overall performance of an industrial firm is significantly affected by the design of its
warehouse management system. The general main problems identified in RUBCO RCM
DIVISIONS include the following main factors.

5.3.1Racking of the Finished Products

28
Stacking and retrieval of finished mattress is one of the laborious routines in a mattress
manufacturing facility. The finished materials are stacked in the FGS-Warehouse. To take an
order for despatch, sometimes each stack has to be restacked in order to take a mattress in the
lower section. This may happen due to mixing of various models in a stack or choosing separate
colour of mattress. The restacking of mattresses are time consuming and the workers are
unnecessary wasting time in non-value added activities; in some case, the mattresses may even
go unnoticed and would require greater search to discover. Moreover, sometimes, because the
mattresses are placed alongside assembly line which cause inconvenience and later involves
extra handling and movement of the materials main problem arising in the industry include the
problem arising due to the arrangement or stacking of the mattresses in the warehouse.

There problems arising due to the horizontal stacking of the mattresses in the division include
loss of foam spring and layers due to stacking on top of one another. Since there exists almost
20 varieties of different mattresses with varying Dimensions and types also there exists loss or
damage happening to the mattreses due to this stacking problem.

1. There exists a great deal of different varities of products with in the same type and these
types get damaged due to the horizontal stacking technique being used in the RUBCO
RCM division.The manual lifting and picking of the stacked mattresses makes it more
complicated and vulnerable to damages happening to mattresses at the bottom due to the
existing single layer horizontal stacking.

The existing Ramp height of the warehouse in RUBCO makes it difficult for the Loading
and unloading to the different parts and thus manual lifting of the mattresses consumes
more time and a loss of time as well as inefficiency is being observed

2.Pulling mattresses is another important flaw happening in the RCM division PULL

29
 Hurried and harried will frequently try to shortcut the annoying problem of removing a
piece that is 6 layers down in the stack. This shortcut is to try to pull out the “buried”
piece without removing the pieces on top

5.1 (MANUAL LIFTING)

5.2(FORK LIFTING)

30
5.4ABSENCE OF A REAL TIME TRACKING SYSTEM FOR ALL STAGES OF SUPPLY
CHAIN

There exists an absence of a proper system for identifying and controlling the flow of the matresses
in the rcm division.

The stacking of a no of different varities of mattresses together and having various dimensions and
different colour codes.IN RUBCO RCM the mattresses are labelled with stickers and the stickers go
unnoticed in some of the caases and this leads to poor visibility of the inventory as well as inventory
inaccuracy.

Some of the mattresses go unnoticed due to the failure to detect the labels on the mattresses due to
worn out of the labels and thus manual listing and identification of matresses from the various stacks
are done by manual identification in RUBCO
Since there is no effective system for tracking the flow of goods in all stages the receipts purchase
requistions orders all have to be manually checked and updated daily inorder to have a list of the flow
of activities in the supply chain..

Failure to identify the types of mattresses in the RCM division since a single variety of matresses
have different forms piling up ones with similar type is not possible and hence identifying them from
a single stack of arrangement is difficult and needs manual expertise.

31
 CHAPTER 6

6.1 PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

1.The general main proposal for the initial problem of stacking will be using vertical stacking
method instead of the conventional systems.as this leads to improper balancing and damage to
the inventory and warehouse systems a proper vertical layer attacking technique could be
issued and provided for the utilization of the floor space.

2.Compared to the existing horizontal single layer stacking in the RUBCO RCM division helps
in proper arrangement and help in reducing the damages happening inside the mattress division.
The vertical stacking technique helps in enhsncing the visibility of the inventory and inturn
reduces the risk of over storage.

3.Usage of fork lifts in the vertical stacking system rather than manual lifting will help in
increasing the efficiency as well as damage to the mattresses

Identification becomes more easier while using the vertical layer stacking in RUBCO,Many of
the leading competitors uses this type of a stacking system and hence by using the vertical layer
of stacking the height could be utilized more effectively compared to others, Normally a
maximum pile of 8 mattresses at a time is the limit by using horizontal layer of stacking and by
using the vertical model this shall be increased and hence more utilization of the capacity could
be done and space could be utilized for other activities.
Increasing the ramp height of loading and unloading section could eliminate the problem of
damages and all happening due to the mismatch of height between inventory and loading
sections.so by increasing the height of the sections and using fork lift the existing problems of
damage could be eliminated.

Bestselling models should probably be placed closer to the front of the warehouse. These are
just ideas to make things a little easier and more efficient. Also leaving plenty of space in
“staging area” for unloading trucks. The size of the deliveries should dictate how much space
is needed.

32
HORIZONTAL SINGLE LAYER STACKING(Fig 6.1)

VERTICAL MULTI LAYER STACKING(PROPOSED )(Fig 6.2)

6.2.PROPOSING RFID technique as a tool for effective real time tracking of the mattresses

Providing a RFID tag for all the mattresses will inturn result in proper identification of the RCM at
any point of the operation. It could be accessed from anywhere and founded out and hence an RFID
sensor will provide or solve the issue of overstocking and will enhance the inventory visibility thereby
leading to proper identification.

This rfid tag once fitted will act as a real time tracking system and provide the necessary information
needed at any point of time and will be having a real time record of the inventory which will inturn
help in the giving the receipts to all of the departments and each of the sections could be planning
33
accordingly which will help in maximizing the supply chain operations.

6.2.1 How It Works in a mattress industry

Unlike bar codes, which use identical coding for a particular type of item, RFID tags can store 2
kilobytes of unique data, which isn’t much in the age of 120 gigabyte entry–level home computers
but is enough to include such useful information as date of manufacture, a serial number and other
basic data.
The RFID system consists of a tag, which is made up of a microchip with a coiled antenna, and a
reader with an antenna, according to a glossary of terms on the RFID Journal Web site. The reader
sends out electromagnetic waves that form a magnetic field when they “couple” with the antenna on
the RFID. A passive RFID tag draws power from the magnetic field, allowing it to “converse” with
the reader.
RFID tags also can be active (with a battery) that sends information to the reader, or semi–active,
using a battery to run the chip’s circuitry but drawing power from the reader to allow communication.

(Fig 6.3 ) RFID tagged mattresses

34
Both active and semi–active tags are much more expensive then passive tags, but they are useful to
track high–dollar items at greater distances. Active and semi–active tags cost more than a dollar to
produce and have a range of 100 feet or greater. In contrast, passive tags cost less than a dollar to
produce but can only be read from 10 feet or less.
Privacy concerns have been raised during some RFID testing over placement of tags on individual
items instead of cases and pallets of product.
The center recently tested pallet RFID tags for a supplier, finding that it took only two hits from a lift
truck to destroy a tag. A pallet generally is handled 15 times per trip, so durability remains a concern.
Besides tag placement, another issue is signal interference from pallets, most of which are constructed
from newly felled trees with a high moisture content. Placing tags directly on pallets can cut the read
rate in half
In the active RFID system, the reader sends signal to the tag using an antenna. The tag receives this
information and resends this information along with the information in its memory. The reader
receives this signal and transmits to the processor for further processing.

Basic RFID system (fig 6.4)

A basic RFID system comprises two parts: the tag, and the reader.

Tag
The RFID tag has an embedded transmitter and receiver. The actual RFID component contained in a
tag has two parts: an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, and an antenna to
receive and transmit a signal. The RFID tag has non-volatile memory storage, and can included either
fixed or programmable logic for processing transmission and sensor data.

35
Reader
The RFID reader features a two-way radio transmitted-reciever (transciever), sometimes referred to
as an interrogator. The transceiver transmits an encoded radio signal to interogate the tag. The radio
signal essentially wakes or activates the tag. In turn, the tag transponder converts the radio signal into
usable power, and responds to the reader.

36
 CHAPTER 7

7.1 EVALUATION OF RFID

Reduced Labor Costs. Since the tags automatically generate and report information when
scanned by an AIDC system, it eliminates the labor costs At RUBCO RCM already its having
a huge no of workers so this problem could be eliminated and maximum capacity production
could be attained

No Line-of-Sight Requirements. RFID tags work independently of line-of-sight systems, like

other words, workers do not have to turn boxes to align barcodes, apply barcodes or deal with
damaged barcodes. So the manual inspection for mattresses in rubco can be eliminated and
real time tracking could be made

•Improves Visibility. More information processed and captured leads to better visibility across
RCM supply chain.

•Contains More Information. More information also has natural benefits for tracking and
tracing products and keeping consumers, retail partners and other supply chain partners
in the loop.

•Scans More Items, Faster. RFID tags can also process and catalog information faster than
the best handheld barcode scanners

•.Less Susceptible to Damage. Due to their construction, often in plastic or hard shells, RFID
tags are less likely to be damaged in the packing, shipping and receiving process.

•Prevents Overstocking and Understocking. Since everything is tracked, RFID tags can
eliminate stocking issues too and improve security in your facility. so there by major problem
of under stocking and overstocking shall be reduced

37
Fig7.1(RFID RCM in assembly line)

7.2(RFID RCM IN ASSEMBLY LINE)

38
7.2 RACKING ANALYSIS-EVALUATION

The Effectiveness of stacking are analysed and mentioned below

Using the vertical space was one which was not all used in the RUBCO so by utilizing the
vertical spaces more capacity utilization and flow of activities could be happening

Using off site location for overstock is another form of warehousing in rubco which shall be
implemented as this reduces the problem of excessstocking

Depth of storage utilization of depth in storage in the RCM division is also another main
activity which could be done to optimize the inventory management and also CONSIDERING
DOUBLE depth racking,

Analyzing the Department space

Identify functions that do not require high ceilings in areas where lower stacking heights are
dictated by the clear height. We often see unused overhead space where large departments like
packing and shipping are performed at RUBCO.

Fig7.3(Forlifting)

39
CHAPTER 8

SUGGESTIONS

Warehousing is an important auxiliary to trade.it creates the time utility by bringing the gap
between production and consumption of goods.so inorder to have a proper and effective system
of warehousing newest and latest technologies shall be implemented inorder to compete with
other competitors .a future improvement must include technologies like barcode scanners RFID
tags and such forms of techniques shall be used for real time tracking of the mattresses

A proper stacking method shall be redesigned and

made and proper and maximum utilization of the capacity maximization shall be ensured as
this inturn leads to the overall flow of the supply chain activities. A proper system for the
identification and sorts of all features in the form of RFID tags shall be embedded and thus it
leads to the efficient suuply chain operations and will inturn provide an upperhand for the
RUBCO against its competitors and will inturn help in increasing the productivity of RUBCO
and help in gaining competitive advantage.

40
 Chapter 9

CONCLUSIONS

Study was conducted at RUBCO RCM division and the general problems ehich they faced
were being analysed and founded out. And the major bottlenecks identified were the inefficient
arrangement of the mattresses in the warehouse and also lack of a proper system for
identification operating and despatching of the mattresses .The lack of a proper system in its
place for mattresses meant that there was inefficiency happening and there were problems of
overstockage Lack of visibility features happening. Also this meant that rubco was unable to
cope up with its heavy demand eventhough they had the machineries and production processes
happening. So a proposed new way of multilayer vertical stacking was suggested and this
meant that there was a great deal of space optimisation and greater flow of the supply chain
processes . another suggested way as a form for identification and despatching of mattresses
were the implementation of RFID technology which meant that RUBCO could be doing real
time tracking of the mattresses at any stage of the cycle. And this meant that proper receipts
stockage of materials were provided with real time information. And this could mean a greater
capacity utilization of the warehouse and inturn leading to less overstockage of goods and
thereby helping in the smooth flow of supply chain activities and inturn leading to gaining
competitive advantage for RUBCO RCM DIVISION.

LIMITATIONS
• The study is limited to warehouse management the arrangements and the positioning of RCM
Materials in the inventory.The technical and non technical aspect will not be considered in this
thesis project
•Time has been a critical factor in this study as informations opinions and all had to be
conducted accommodating the busy nature of the industry
•The extent of informations received from the RCM division also has restrictions due to the
Sensitivity of the information

41
 Chapter 10
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