In the distribution center, active floor management could help the managers to improve performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor regularly 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 frequent visits could be utilized 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 essential to the overall operation and extremely vital; finally, you could address issues as they arise.
Determine the Utilization of Space: Start by checking cube utilization in your facility. Check if there is much empty space near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts that operate in those types of settings can greatly increase how you move and store supplies. What might not look like much wasted area could mean thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like for example, if a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in more than a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. As well, if you have lots of half-full pallets that are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not utilizing valuable space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, much space could be made to accommodate objects that are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the flow of products is both logical and sequential, by making the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility regularly. Roughly 60% of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can probably have less staff finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to finish other tasks rather than having personnel doubled up moving objects would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
The order filling process must 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 big time-waster is having the same SKU situated in multiple places within the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a specific location for each and every particular item so that they are simply looking in one area and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one location for the same item. These small changes could vastly enhance the overall efficiency in your warehouse.