Within the distribution center, active floor management could assist the supervisors to improve performance in 3 main ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of issues.
It helps to identify which workers may need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits could be utilized to see who might be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which happens there and the employees to be vital to the overall operation and really essential; finally, you could deal with issues as they happen.
Determine the Use of Space: Start by examining cube utilization in your facility. Inspect if there is much empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and particular forklifts that work in those types of environments can greatly increase how you move and store materials. What might not seem like a lot of wasted space could translate into thousands of extra dollars and square feet with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like for instance, if a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in over a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. As well, if you have numerous half-full pallets that are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not utilizing available space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, much space can be made to accommodate objects which are moving faster.
How is the Product Flow? Check to see if the product flow is both logical and sequential, by making the time to trace how precisely product flows in your facility regularly. Approximately 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could potentially have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete different other jobs rather than having personnel doubled up transporting things will get more work out of the same amount of employees.
The order filling process must be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location. If orders do not require items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more big time-waster is having the same SKU situated in many places inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular location for each and every specific thing so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling all around the warehouse checking more than one place for the same item. These small changes could greatly enhance the overall efficiency within your warehouse.