Active floor management enables supervisors to enhance performance in the distribution center 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 identify which employees might need 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 workers to be vital to the overall operation and very essential; finally, you can address issues as they happen.
Determine the Utilization of Space: Start by examining cube utilization within your facility. Check if there is a lot of empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and particular forklifts that work in those types of environments can greatly increase how you store and transport supplies. What may not look like much wasted area can translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like 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. As well, if you have lots of half-full pallets which are stored or staged in aisles, you are also not using available space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, much space can be made to accommodate faster moving things.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the flow of products is both sequential and logical, by taking the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility on a regular basis. Approximately 60% of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can potentially have less employees finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete various other tasks rather than having workers doubled up moving things would get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
The order filling method should 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 waste of time is having the same SKU situated in multiple places inside the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a particular location for each particular thing so that they are simply looking in one area and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one place for the same item. These small changes could greatly improve the overall efficiency within your warehouse.