Active floor management enables managers to improve performance in the distribution center in 3 key ways. Be sure to regularly walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to identify which workers might need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These frequent visits could be used to see who may be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and everything which occurs there and the workers to be essential to the overall operation and very important; lastly, you can address problems as they arise.
Determine the Utilization of Space: To start with, you must determine the cube utilization within you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is situated close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and particular forklifts which operate in those types of environments could greatly increase how you transport and store materials. What may not seem like much wasted area can mean thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: Like 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. What's more, if you have lots of half-full pallets stored or staged in aisles, you are also not using 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? Make the time to trace how precisely product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Check to see if the flow is sequential and logical. About 60 percent of direct labor in the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You could potentially have less personnel completing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to finish other tasks instead of having personnel doubled up moving things would get more work out of the same amount of staff.
Review how the order filling method is taking place. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not require things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in multiple places in the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a particular place for each particular thing so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one location for the same item. These small changes can greatly improve the overall efficiency in your warehouse.