In the distribution center, active floor management can help the supervisors to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor on a regular basis, it helps to recognize which workers might need more training and which may be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the workers to be essential to the overall operation and really vital; lastly, you could address problems as they arise.
Determine the Utilization of Space: To begin with, you must determine the cube utilization in you workplace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts which operate in those kinds of settings can really increase how you transport and store materials. What may not seem like much wasted area could mean 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 more than a year, it is certainly consuming valuable space. As well, if you have a lot of 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 can be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the flow of products is both logical and sequential, by making the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility regularly. About 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can probably have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete other jobs rather than having workers doubled up moving items would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
Review how the order filling method is happening. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not need items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another big waste of time is having the same SKU located in multiple locations in the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a specific place for each and every specific thing so that they are simply looking in one area and not traveling all around the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can greatly improve the overall efficiency within your warehouse.