Active floor supervision enables supervisors to improve performance in the distribution center in 3 main ways. Be sure to walk the floor regularly to stay abreast of issues.
By having management show presence on the floor on a regular basis, 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 everything which occurs there and the workers to be vital to the overall operation and very essential; finally, you can deal with problems as they arise.
Determine the Use of Space: Begin by checking cube utilization within your facility. Inspect if there is much empty space close to the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and particular forklifts which operate in those types of settings can greatly increase how you move and store materials. What might not seem like much wasted area can translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you see a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in over a year, it is certainly consuming valuable space. In addition, if you have numerous half-full pallets that are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not using valuable space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, much space could be made to accommodate items which are moving faster.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the flow of products is both logical and sequential, by taking the time to trace how exactly product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Roughly 60% 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 staff to finish different other jobs rather than having personnel doubled up moving items will get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
The order filling procedure should be reviewed and if it is identified that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place. If orders do not require objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another huge time-waster is having the same SKU situated in many locations inside the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a particular location for each particular item so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one place for the same item. These small changes could greatly enhance the overall efficiency within your warehouse.