In the distribution center, active floor supervision can assist the managers to improve performance in 3 main ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to identify which workers may require more training and which may be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and extremely vital; finally, you can address issues as they arise.
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 higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts which operate in those kinds of environments can greatly increase how you move and store materials. What may not seem like much wasted space can translate into thousands of extra dollars and square feet 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 numerous half-full pallets that 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, a lot of space could be made to accommodate objects which are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Make 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% of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You can probably have less staff completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move staff to complete other tasks instead of having personnel doubled up transporting items would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
The order filling process should be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place. If orders do not need 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 specific place for each particular item so that they are simply looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes could vastly improve the overall efficiency in your warehouse.