Active floor management enables managers to improve performance within the distribution center in 3 main ways. Be sure to frequently walk the floor to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to identify which employees might need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits can be used to see who may be the next to be promoted to a supervisory position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the employees to be essential to the overall operation and very essential; lastly, you can address issues as they happen.
Determine the Use of Space: Begin by examining cube utilization in your facility. Inspect if there is a lot of empty space near the ceiling. Implementing narrower aisles and higher racks and certain forklifts that operate in those types of environments could really increase how you store and move supplies. What might not seem like much wasted space could mean thousands of extra dollars and square feet with some adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you see a stock-keeping unit or SKU has not moved in more than a year, it is definitely consuming valuable space. Moreover, if you have numerous half-full pallets which are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not utilizing available space to its full potential. By re-organizing existing stock and doing an inventory overhaul, much space can be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
How is the Flow of Product? Check to see if the flow of products is both logical and sequential, by making the time to trace how exactly product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Approximately 60% of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from place to place. You could potentially have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move employees to complete various other jobs rather than having employees doubled up transporting objects will get more work out of the same amount of personnel.
Review how the order filling method is occurring. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one place and orders do not need things of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge waste of time is having the same SKU situated in multiple places within the warehouse. Get the workers used of going to a specific location for each and every specific item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes could vastly enhance the overall effectiveness within your warehouse.