Active floor management allows managers to improve performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor regularly to stay abreast of issues.
It helps to recognize which workers may require more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These frequent 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 all goings on there and the employees to be essential to the overall operation and extremely important; finally, you could address problems as they arise.
Determine the Utilization of Space: To begin with, you must determine the cube utilization in you workspace, making sure to examine how much empty space is situated near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and particular forklifts which work in those types of settings can really increase how you transport and store materials. What might not seem like much wasted space can mean thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: For instance, if a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in more than a year, then it is considered to be consuming valuable space. Furthermore, if you have numerous 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, a lot of space could be made to accommodate objects which are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Take the time to trace how precisely product flows in your facility on a regular basis. Check to see if the flow is logical and sequential. Around 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can potentially have less staff completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete other jobs rather than having employees doubled up moving objects would get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
The order filling procedure must be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place. If orders do not require things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another big time-waster is having the same SKU situated in many places inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a specific location for each and every particular thing so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes could vastly improve the overall efficiency within your warehouse.