Active floor management allows managers to improve performance within the distribution center in 3 main ways. Be sure to walk the floor on a regular basis to stay abreast of problems.
By having management show presence on the floor regularly, it helps to identify which employees might need more training and which might be the next to be promoted to a managerial position; it shows you consider the floor and all goings on there and the employees to be essential to the overall operation and very important; finally, you can deal with issues as they arise.
Determine the Utilization of Space: First, you should determine the cube utilization in you workspace, making sure to examine how much empty space is located close to the ceiling. Implementing higher racks and narrow aisles and specific forklifts that work in those kinds of environments can greatly increase how you store and transport materials. What may not seem like a lot of wasted space could translate into thousands of square feet and extra dollars with a few adjustments.
Check for Obsolete Inventory: If you notice a SKU or stock-keeping unit has not moved in more than a year, it is definitely consuming valuable space. Additionally, if you have numerous half-full pallets that are staged or stored in aisles, you are also not utilizing available space to its full potential. By doing an inventory overhaul and re-organizing existing stock, a lot of space could be made to accommodate faster moving objects.
How is the Product Flow? Check to see if the product flow is both sequential and logical, by taking the time to trace how precisely product flows in your facility regularly. About 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 staff to finish different other jobs instead of having employees doubled up transporting objects will get more work out of the same amount of staff.
Review how the order filling process is happening. If you notice that a variety of SKUs are mixed-up in one location and orders do not require items of this mix, pickers are wasting time. Another huge waste of time is having the same SKU located in multiple locations in the warehouse. Get the staff used of going to a particular location for each particular item so that they are just looking in one area and not traveling all over the warehouse checking more than one place for the same thing. These small changes can vastly improve the overall effectiveness within your warehouse.