Active floor management enables managers to enhance performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to regularly walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to identify which workers may need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits could be utilized to see who may be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which happens there and the workers to be essential to the overall operation and very vital; finally, you can deal with issues as they occur.
Determine the Utilization of Space: Begin by checking cube utilization within your facility. Check if there is a lot of empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and certain forklifts that operate in those types of environments can really increase how you transport and store supplies. What may not look like a lot of wasted area can translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: 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. What's more, if you have numerous half-full pallets stored or staged in aisles, you are also not using valuable space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, a lot of space can be made to accommodate things 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 logical and sequential. Around 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can probably have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move staff to finish various other jobs instead of having personnel doubled up transporting objects would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
Review how the order filling procedure is taking place. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place and orders do not need items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in multiple locations inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a specific place for every specific item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling all around the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes could greatly enhance the overall efficiency inside your warehouse.