Our first list was so popular that many people asked for more, and we are happy to deliver! Check out this list of under-rated actions that can really “move the needle” in your warehousing operations!
- To increase worker accountability, post in a conspicuous place the picking rates of individuals or groups in real time.
- Establish productivity and quality goals for new product pickers.
- Establish goals and tracking systems to measure and audit stockouts and the number of items not in their proper location.
- When possible, have workers pick horizontally; if vertical picking is the only option, put fast moving items at ground level and slower moving items on higher levels.
- Place frequently picked items close to the shipping station to increase throughput.
- The larger the warehouse the more quickly the facility should eventually be automated with warehouse robots doing the work and employees spending time on the floor only when there is a problem.
- Upfit your aisles, bays, shelves, and slots with clearly marked, large, easily identifiable location signs to keep workers moving to their correct locations.
- Use times-picked rankings in order to determine the products moving the fastest and the optimal places to put them.
- Touch items only once to help prevent errors and increase speed of products out the door.
Operations that do more piece picking (versus case picking) have the opportunity to hire more women workers due to the focus on dexterity as opposed to physical strength.
- Create formal dialog sessions with warehouse workers on a regular basis to help determine which operational processes are broken, ineffective, or missing.
- When designing pay plans, offer all-or-nothing bonuses to workers who achieve predetermined levels of throughput, accuracy, safety, and attendance.
- Assign each worker to a specific zone to allow him to become an expert within his area of the facility and also to reduce travel time.Have a best practice that we didn’t list here? Email it to us at Marketing@MountainLeverage.com so we can include it on future lists!Want to see more content like this? Check out our Heads Up Interview series to catch the latest and greatest from industry experts! Also available as a Podcast!
Archive
Mountain Leverage Voice Vs. Personal Voice Assistants: What Makes Our Technology Better?
Championing Our Customers in a New Way – Meet Jaime
Critical VMware Vulnerabilities and Data Security Risks – What You Need to Know
Reducing Training Costs and Time With Mountain Leverage Voice
Don’t Miss The Boat! Charting a Course For Automation