Active floor management enables managers to enhance performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of issues.
It helps to recognize which workers may need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits can be used to see who 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 vital to the overall operation and really essential; finally, you could address problems as they happen.
Determine the Utilization of Space: Begin by examining cube utilization in your facility. Inspect if there is a lot of empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and certain forklifts which operate in those types of environments can greatly increase how you transport and store materials. What may not look like a lot of wasted space can mean thousands of extra dollars and square feet 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 certainly consuming valuable space. Moreover, if you have a lot of half-full pallets staged or stored in aisles, you are also not using valuable space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, much space can be made to accommodate objects that are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Make the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility regularly. Check to see if the flow is sequential and logical. Roughly 60 percent of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can potentially have less staff finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move staff to complete other jobs rather than having employees doubled up moving objects will get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling procedure is taking place. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not need objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in multiple places in the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a particular place for each and every specific item so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can greatly improve the overall efficiency inside your warehouse.