Active floor management allows supervisors to enhance performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of issues.
It helps to recognize which employees may require more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These frequent visits could be used to see who might be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which occurs there and the workers to be essential to the overall operation and really essential; finally, you can address problems as they occur.
Determine the Utilization of Space: First, you should determine the cube utilization within you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts which operate in those types of environments can greatly increase how you store and transport materials. What might not seem like much wasted area can translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like for example, if a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in over a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. Moreover, if you have numerous 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, much room can be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
How is the Product Flow? Check to see if the product flow is both sequential and logical, by taking the time to trace how precisely product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Approximately 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could probably have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete other jobs rather than having personnel doubled up transporting items 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 place and orders do not require objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more big waste of time is having the same SKU situated in multiple locations in the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a particular place for each and every particular thing so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same item. These small changes could vastly improve the overall efficiency within your warehouse.