Within the distribution center, active floor supervision can assist the supervisors to improve performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor regularly to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor on a regular basis, it helps to identify which workers may need more training and which might be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the employees to be vital to the overall operation and very essential; finally, you could address issues as they happen.
Determine the Utilization of Space: Start by checking cube utilization within your facility. Inspect if there is a lot of empty space near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts which work in those kinds of settings could really increase how you store and transport supplies. What may not look like much wasted area can mean thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you see a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in more than a year, it is certainly consuming valuable space. As well, if you have numerous half-full pallets which are stored or staged in aisles, you are also not utilizing available space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, a lot of space could be made to accommodate objects that are moving faster.
How is the Product Flow? Take the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility regularly. Check to see if the flow is logical and sequential. Approximately 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can probably have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move staff to finish other jobs rather than having workers doubled up transporting items would get more work out of the same amount of employees.
The order filling procedure must be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location. If orders do not need objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge time-waster is having the same SKU located in multiple locations inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a specific location for each particular thing so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can vastly enhance the overall efficiency inside your warehouse.