Active floor supervision enables supervisors to enhance performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to identify which workers might need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits could be used to see who may be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which happens there and the workers to be essential to the overall operation and extremely important; finally, you can deal with problems as they arise.
Determine the Use of Space: Start by examining cube utilization in your facility. Inspect if there is a lot of empty space near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts that operate in those kinds of environments can really increase how you store and move materials. What may not look like a lot of wasted space could translate into thousands of extra dollars and square feet 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. Additionally, if you have a lot of half-full pallets which are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not using valuable space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, a lot of room could be made to accommodate items which are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Make the time to trace how exactly product flows through your facility regularly. Check to see if the flow is sequential and logical. Around 60% of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could potentially have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move staff to finish other jobs instead of having employees doubled up moving objects will get more work out of the same amount of staff.
Review how the order filling method is happening. 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. Another huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in multiple locations inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular place for each and every specific thing so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes could vastly enhance the overall efficiency in your warehouse.