Active floor management enables managers to enhance performance within the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to identify which workers might require more training and which may 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 can deal with problems as they occur.
Determine the Use of Space: To start with, you must determine the cube utilization in you workplace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and specific forklifts which operate in those types of settings could really increase how you move and store supplies. What might 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 definitely consuming valuable space. Also, if you have numerous half-full pallets which are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not using available space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, a lot of space could be made to accommodate faster moving items.
How is the Product Flow? Check to see if the product flow is both logical and sequential, by taking the time to trace how exactly product flows in your facility regularly. About 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could probably have less staff finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete other jobs instead of having employees doubled up moving items would get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling procedure is happening. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place and 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 locations in the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a particular location for every specific thing so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can greatly enhance the overall effectiveness inside your warehouse.