Active floor management enables supervisors to enhance performance within the distribution center in 3 main ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of problems.
It helps to recognize which employees might need more training by having regular presence on management on the floor. These regular visits could be utilized to see who might 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 essential to the overall operation and very important; finally, you can address problems as they arise.
Determine the Use of Space: To begin with, you must determine the cube utilization within you workspace, making sure to check how much empty space is located near the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and certain forklifts which work in those kinds of settings can really increase how you store and move supplies. What may not look like a lot of wasted area 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 over a year, it is definitely consuming valuable space. Furthermore, 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 room could be made to accommodate faster moving things.
How is the Product Flow? Check to see if the product flow is both sequential and logical, by taking the time to trace how exactly product flows through your facility on a regular basis. Around 60 percent of direct labor within the warehouse is allotted to traveling from one place to another. You can probably have less personnel finishing the same amount of work by being aware of product flow. Being able to move personnel to complete various other jobs instead of having employees doubled up moving objects would get more work out of the same amount of employees.
Review how the order filling method is occurring. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not need objects of this mix, pickers are wasting time. One more huge waste of time is having the same SKU located in many places in the warehouse. Get the employees used of going to a particular place for each and every specific item so that they are just looking in one place and not traveling through the warehouse checking more than one location for the same item. These small changes can greatly improve the overall effectiveness inside your warehouse.