In the distribution center, active floor supervision can help the supervisors to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
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 all goings on there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and very vital; lastly, you can deal with problems as they occur.
Determine the Utilization of Space: To begin with, you should determine the cube utilization in you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is located near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts that work in those types of settings can greatly increase how you transport and store supplies. What might not seem like a lot of wasted space could translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: For example, if a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in more than a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. As well, if you have numerous half-full pallets that are 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, a lot of room could be made to accommodate faster moving items.
How is the Product Flow? Make the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility on a regular basis. Check to see if the flow is sequential and logical. Roughly 60 percent of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can probably have less staff finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete different other jobs instead of having workers doubled up transporting items would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
The order filling method must be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location. If orders do not require objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more big time-waster is having the same SKU located in many locations inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular location for each particular item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same item. These small changes could greatly enhance the overall effectiveness inside your warehouse.