Within the distribution center, active floor supervision could assist the managers to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to recognize which workers may require more training and which might be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which occurs there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and very vital; lastly, you can deal with problems as they happen.
Determine the Use of Space: Start by examining cube utilization within your facility. Check if there is a lot of empty space near the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and specific forklifts which work in those types of settings can really increase how you store and move materials. What may not look like much wasted space can translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you see a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in over a year, it is definitely consuming valuable space. Moreover, if you have numerous half-full pallets stored or staged in aisles, you are also not using available space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, much room could be made to accommodate items that 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 exactly product flows in your facility regularly. Roughly 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can potentially have less staff finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete different other jobs rather than having workers doubled up moving things will get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling procedure is happening. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not need things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more big waste of time is having the same SKU located in many locations in the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a specific place for every particular thing so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can greatly enhance the overall efficiency within your warehouse.