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June 13, 2006 Warehouse Optimization: When It’s the Little Things That Mean the Most Many of the efforts to drive costs down by increasing productivity made by Food Distributors are centered upon Warehouse Optimization. However boosting productivity in your warehouse doesn’t always mean your wallet has to suffer. There are many low investment - highly beneficial practices that you can implant in your warehouse to bring about desired change.
· Invest In Your Employees: Taking the time to properly train your employees is often inexpensive and will likely have the greatest return on investment of anything you will do in your operation. When it comes to fighting off the “creeping obsolescence” that affects all warehouse technology, it’s your pickers, packers, and supervisors that become your first line of defense. It is no coincidence that food distribution operations that suffer from safety issues, poor quality, low productivity, low employee morale, exceedingly stressed supervisors, and a general lack of control also tend to lack sufficient employee training and procedures. Although it is often difficult for supervisors to delegate time to properly train new employees, it is extremely important in the long run.
· Keep Your Cool: It’s a fact of life that when the summer months come the temperature rises. And when your warehouse gets really hot you’re undoubtedly going to experience drops in productivity levels unless you take the right measures. Air conditioning in the warehouse is always an option but for many this is luxury that is mere wishful thinking. However, you would be surprised at how much you can do with a few well positioned ceiling and floor fans (fans can even be added directly to your forklifts). Since the temperature near the warehouse ceiling is significantly warmer than at the floor level (in the winter months too), fans become especially important on order selectors or turret trucks. Spending a lot of time on your feet in hot conditions can easily cause dehydration (just picture the last time you took your family to a crowded amusement park in the middle of July), and even a mild case of this will impair your employee’s productivity. Invest in water coolers for drinkable water on the go and encourage your employees to drink often.
· Proper Equipment & Maintenance: If employees are not provided with the tools needed to perform their jobs how will you ever increase the productivity levels in your warehouse? Nit picking over whether or not you spend the extra dollars to order extra stock carts or pallet jacks will do nothing but bring down your operations. If employees are wasting time (lets say time better spent picking orders!) by wandering around the warehouse in search of a pallet jack or a shrink wrap dispenser, then that will certainly be more detrimental to your bottom line then if you had just purchased more of those low cost supplies. Furthermore by purchasing higher quality tools and supplies to begin with you will help increase employee morale, as we all can imagine how an employee would feel after using a pallet jack that requires extra pumping every time. Keep in mind that maintaining your current warehouse equipment is not only a productivity issue but an employee safety issue as well. Employees ought to be trained and encouraged to immediately report any problems with all types of equipment from pallet racks to lift trucks to help fix small equipment problems before they turn into bigger issues. SMALL CHANGES KEEP YOU FROM SPENDING BIG $$$ ATTENTION CC4F NEWS SUBSCRIBERS – You’re regularly scheduled issue of CC4F news will not be published next Tuesday (June 20th 2006) as our Editor will be taking a week off to explore the California, Washington, and Oregon coast on his motorcycle. We wish him a fond farewell as he sets off for his week long Pacific adventure!
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