In the distribution center, active floor management can help the managers to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to identify which workers may need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These frequent 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 important; lastly, you can deal with problems as they happen.
Determine the Utilization of Space: First, you must determine the cube utilization within you workplace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts that work in those kinds of environments could really increase how you store and move materials. What might not look like much wasted area could translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: For example, if a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in over a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. Additionally, if you have many 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, a lot of room could be made to accommodate faster moving things.
How is the Flow of Product? Make the time to trace how precisely 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 one place to another. You could probably have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete various other jobs rather than having employees doubled up transporting items will get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling method is happening. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place and orders do not require objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another huge waste of time is having the same SKU situated in multiple places within the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a specific location for each and every particular item so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes could greatly enhance the overall efficiency inside your warehouse.