Active floor management enables managers to enhance performance in the distribution center in 3 main ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to recognize which workers may need 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 extremely essential; finally, you could deal with issues as they occur.
Determine the Use of Space: First, you must determine the cube utilization within you workspace, making sure to examine how much empty space is located near the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and certain forklifts which operate in those types of settings can really increase how you move and store materials. What might not seem like a lot of wasted space could translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: 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 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, much room can be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
How is the Product Flow? 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 regularly. Roughly 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could probably have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to finish other tasks rather than having personnel doubled up transporting items will get more work out of the same amount of staff.
The order filling process must be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location. If orders do not require items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge waste of time is having the same SKU situated in many places in the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a specific place for each and every particular item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling all around the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can vastly enhance the overall efficiency within your warehouse.