Within the distribution center, active floor supervision could 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.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to identify which employees may need more training and which may be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and everything that occurs there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and very vital; finally, you can address problems as they happen.
Determine the Utilization of Space: Start by checking cube utilization in your facility. Check if there is a lot of empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and specific forklifts that work in those kinds of environments can really increase how you move and store supplies. What might not look like a lot of wasted area could translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you notice a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in over a year, it is definitely consuming valuable space. Additionally, if you have many half-full pallets staged or stored in aisles, you are also not utilizing available space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, a lot of space can be made to accommodate things which are moving faster.
How is the Product Flow? 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. Approximately 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can potentially have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete other tasks rather than having workers doubled up moving things would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
Review how the order filling process is occurring. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place and orders do not need items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more big waste of time is having the same SKU situated in multiple locations in the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a specific location for each and every specific item so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one place for the same item. These small changes could vastly enhance the overall efficiency inside your warehouse.