In the distribution center, active floor supervision can assist the managers to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to recognize which employees might need more training and which might be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which happens there and the employees to be vital to the overall operation and extremely essential; finally, you could deal with issues as they happen.
Determine the Use of Space: To begin with, you must determine the cube utilization within you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts which operate in those types of environments can really increase how you store and move materials. What might not look like much wasted area can translate into thousands of extra dollars and square feet with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you notice a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in more than a year, it is certainly consuming valuable space. Additionally, 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 doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, much space can be made to accommodate objects which are moving faster.
How is the Product Flow? Make the time to trace how exactly product flows through your facility regularly. Check to see if the flow is sequential and logical. About 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could potentially have less employees finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to finish other jobs instead of having employees doubled up moving items would get more work out of the same amount of employees.
The order filling method should be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location. If orders do not require things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in multiple locations in the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a specific place for every specific thing so that they are simply looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same item. These small changes can greatly enhance the overall effectiveness within your warehouse.