In the distribution center, active floor supervision could assist the supervisors to improve performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to regularly walk the floor to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to recognize which employees might require more training and which might be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the employees to be essential to the overall operation and really essential; lastly, you could address problems as they occur.
Determine the Use of Space: To start with, you must determine the cube utilization in you workplace, making sure to check how much empty space is located close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts which work in those types of environments can greatly increase how you store and transport materials. What might not look like much wasted space could translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like for instance, if a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in more than a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. In addition, if you have many half-full pallets which are stored or staged in aisles, you are also not using available space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, much room could be made to accommodate things that are moving faster.
How is the Product Flow? Make the time to trace how precisely product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Check to see if the flow is logical and sequential. Approximately 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could potentially have less staff finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete different other tasks rather than having personnel doubled up transporting objects will get more work out of the same amount of staff.
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 things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge waste of time is having the same SKU situated in multiple places inside the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a specific place for each and every specific thing so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes could greatly improve the overall effectiveness within your warehouse.