Active floor supervision allows supervisors to improve performance within the distribution center in 3 main ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to recognize which employees may need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These frequent visits could be utilized to see who might be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the employees to be essential to the overall operation and very important; lastly, you can address problems as they occur.
Determine the Use of Space: First, you must determine the cube utilization in you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated near the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and specific forklifts which operate in those kinds of environments could really increase how you store and transport supplies. What may not seem like much wasted space could translate into thousands of extra dollars and square feet with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: For instance, if a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in over a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. Moreover, if you have numerous half-full pallets which are 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 could be made to accommodate faster moving items.
How is the Flow of Product? Take the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility on a regular basis. Check to see if the flow is logical and sequential. Approximately 60 percent of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can potentially have less personnel completing 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 moving things will 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 need things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another big time-waster is having the same SKU situated in many locations inside the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a specific location for each and every specific thing so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can greatly improve the overall efficiency within your warehouse.