Business may be slow now but before you know it you’ll be jammed again. Want to get more done with the folks you have? Things to consider:
- Keep the lifts in good repair
- Batteries getting old?
- Stagger shift starts – replenish forward picking before the first wave
- Reslot often – move the A items closer to the dock
- Not enough space, then make more – get to 10% empty forwards and 20% empty reserves
- Qualify and prioritize the inbound freight – need the trailer now, or later?
- Qualify the product going into reserve
- Get the inbound current and under control before tackling pick, pack, ship
- Fix any and all inventory inaccuracy root causes
- Have fresh eyes look at the problem – select different supervisors or warehouse workers to look at other areas
- Eliminate touches – live load, don’t pick and stage
- Minimize travel – never travel empty – put one away, pick one to ship
- Right size the forwards, so inbound doesn’t need to go into reserve
- Align the picking method for each product with its order pattern
- Can the WMS round up order quantities to an easily picked unit or measure?
- Engage the troops
- Every DC worker makes thousands of decisions each day; understand and guide discretionary decision-making
- Solve the workforce’s boredom problem
- Most supervisors spend less than 5% of their time on motivating employees, double that and double productivity
- Inbound congestion means waste and extra touches
- Housekeeping
- Address the annoyances that demotivate
- Keep inbound under control and putaway as timely as possible
- Recalculate Safety Stock
- Update leadtimes
- Bust the inbound batch sizes
- Increase inbound visibility, smooth the spikes if you can
- Publish metrics for all to see and encourage friendly competition between zones, departments, facilities
- Create a ‘dog pound’ and move slow movers out of the way
- Study and fight outbound congestion
- Adjust the number of pick zones; fewer the better
- Synchronize order filling across all zones
- Keep current on replenishment
- Never run out of supplies (totes, pallets, carts, tape)
- Adjust the organization chart
- Constantly monitor outbound flow; rebalance pick, pack, and loading
- Reduce the number of job classifications by cross training and rotation
- Use inbound teams and eliminate staging areas: unload, receive and put away with one touch not two or three
- Brainstorm and then brainstorm some more
- Be careful what you measure
- If you are in a meltdown, get help
- Consider postal pick location address scheme; going down an aisle picking on left and right instead of down one side and coming back the other