In the distribution center, active floor supervision can assist the managers to improve performance in 3 main ways. Be sure to regularly walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to recognize 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 everything which happens there and the employees to be essential to the overall operation and extremely important; lastly, you could address problems as they occur.
Determine the Utilization of Space: To start with, you should determine the cube utilization in you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and certain forklifts which work in those types of settings could greatly increase how you store and move supplies. What may not seem like much wasted area can mean thousands of extra dollars and square feet with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like for instance, 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 which are stored or staged in aisles, you are also not utilizing valuable space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, much room could be made to accommodate things which 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 precisely product flows in your facility regularly. Approximately 60% of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You could potentially have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to finish other tasks rather than having workers doubled up transporting things will get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling process is happening. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place and orders do not need objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another huge waste of time is having the same SKU located in multiple locations in the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a specific place for each and every particular item so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes could greatly improve the overall efficiency inside your warehouse.