In the distribution center, active floor management can assist the supervisors to enhance performance in 3 main ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to identify which employees might require more training and which may be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and everything that happens there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and really vital; finally, you can address issues as they occur.
Determine the Use of Space: To start with, you should determine the cube utilization in you workspace, making sure to examine how much empty space is located near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts that work in those kinds of environments could greatly increase how you move and store supplies. 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 example, if a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in over a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. As well, if you have many half-full pallets stored or staged in aisles, you are also not utilizing valuable space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, much 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 sequential and logical, by taking the time to trace how precisely 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 staff completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move staff to complete other jobs instead of having employees doubled up moving items will get more work out of the same amount of employees.
The order filling procedure should be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place. If orders do not need items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge waste of time is having the same SKU located in many locations in the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a specific place for each particular thing so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can vastly enhance the overall efficiency in your warehouse.