Active floor supervision enables managers to improve performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor regularly to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor on a regular basis, it helps to identify which workers might require more training and which may 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 could address problems as they occur.
Determine the Use of Space: To start with, you must determine the cube utilization within you workplace, making sure to examine how much empty space is situated near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts that work in those kinds of settings could greatly increase how you store and transport supplies. What may not seem like a lot of wasted space could mean thousands of extra dollars and square feet with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you see a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in over a year, it is definitely consuming valuable space. In addition, if you have a lot of half-full pallets 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, much room can be made to accommodate items that are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the product flow is both logical and sequential, by making the time to trace how precisely product flows through your facility on a regular basis. About 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can potentially have less employees finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete various other tasks rather than having employees doubled up moving things would get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
The order filling method should 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. Another huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in many locations inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular location for every particular item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes could vastly improve the overall efficiency in your warehouse.