Within the distribution center, active floor supervision could help the supervisors to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of issues.
It helps to recognize which workers might require more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits can be used to see who 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 really vital; finally, you can deal with issues as they arise.
Determine the Use of Space: Begin by examining cube utilization in your facility. Inspect if there is much empty space near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts which operate in those kinds of environments can really increase how you move and store supplies. What may not seem like a lot of wasted area can mean thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some 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. Additionally, if you have a lot of half-full pallets staged or stored in aisles, you are also not utilizing valuable space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, much space could be made to accommodate things which are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the product flow is both sequential and logical, by taking the time to trace how exactly product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Approximately 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can probably have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete other jobs instead of having workers doubled up moving things would 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 huge time-waster is having the same SKU located in multiple places inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a specific location for each and every specific item so that they are simply looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same item. These small changes can greatly enhance the overall effectiveness inside your warehouse.