In the distribution center, active floor supervision can help the supervisors to enhance performance in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to recognize which workers may need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These frequent visits can be utilized to see who may 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 vital to the overall operation and very vital; lastly, you can address problems as they arise.
Determine the Utilization of Space: To begin with, you must determine the cube utilization within you workplace, making sure to examine how much empty space is situated near the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and specific forklifts which operate in those types of settings could greatly increase how you transport and store materials. What might not look like much wasted area can mean thousands of extra dollars and square feet with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you see a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in more than a year, it is certainly consuming valuable space. What's more, if you have many 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, much room can be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
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. About 60 percent of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can potentially have less personnel finishing 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 transporting things would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
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 situated in many places in the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular location for every particular item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same thing. These small changes can vastly improve the overall effectiveness within your warehouse.