Active floor supervision enables supervisors to improve performance within the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to regularly walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
By having management show presence on the floor on a regular basis, it helps to identify which workers might require more training and which might be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and really vital; lastly, you can address problems as they arise.
Determine the Use of Space: Begin by examining cube utilization in your facility. Inspect if there is a lot of empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts that operate in those kinds of settings could greatly increase how you transport and store supplies. What may not seem like much wasted space could mean thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you notice a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in over a year, it is certainly consuming valuable space. What's more, if you have lots of half-full pallets 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 room could be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
How is the Product Flow? Take the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility regularly. Check to see if the flow is logical and sequential. Roughly 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You could potentially have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to finish other jobs rather than having personnel doubled up transporting items would get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling process is taking place. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not require objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another big time-waster is having the same SKU located in many places inside the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular place for every particular item so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling all around the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes can greatly enhance the overall effectiveness within your warehouse.