Use Efficient Warehouse Picking to gain competitive advantage and strategic mileage

· Lean,Future State,Change Management,SupplyChain,Manufacturing

“ Improvement within warehouse picking and put-away have massive potential that can put your business ahead of your competition almost instantly  ”  

By Future StatePartners 

Most of us working in the warehouse (regards less of the size) can very easily identify themselves fulfilling orders or receiving the orders one after the other. In a fast paced environment, there is plenty of chance to step back and think ways about better ways of conducting the order fulfilment. Even though we all are trying hard to get the day going as best as possible, there is definite need to start doing the things which we thought or spoke about (during those quick chats while picking, or daily meetings, during morning tea, lunch etc.)

During my exploratory visit to a warehouse for conducting Warehouse-Lean-Assessment, we discovered that there are so many ways the picking (both with and without forklift) activity was a key driver to the performance of this 4PL organisation. 

Lean Six SIgma, Change Managment, Lean tools, Continuous Improvement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, DIFOT , process improvement

On expanding my discussion further with the Managers of the site and Vice president of the contract, the current demand fluctuations has affected the both inbound and outbound side of business in such a way that time had come to start thinking about effectively utilising the people resources and the floor spaces, storage locations, forklift movements as well.  

There is a huge opportunity for most of the Warehousing businesses to convert this opportunity into a competitive advantage. Speeding up warehouse picking and put away has huge potential to increase customer satisfaction, quicken the positive cash flow, reduce the cost of picking resources

This begs a question,why we are not able to make most of this opportunity? 

We can think of many reasons behind it (please check out the infographic below). One of the key issues is most of the solutions that are available out there require huge investments,they take time to implement and adopt by the warehouse staff, in short, the benefits of the solutions (like automation, conveying etc.) are far fetched as well. 

For all the avid readers

Please feel free to book a exploratory conversation on how to bring your vison to life with practicable change strategies, please click here

Lean Six SIgma, Change Managment, Lean tools, Continuous Improvement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, DIFOT , process improvement

 


How to lead theway and create a best-in-class warehousing environment? 

A quick look at the infographic above shows, all the areas where we have lost a great deal of effort and time in this situation. The resultant in most cases is the whole environment suffers from increased walking, forklift movements, stock inaccuracies, lag in inbound /outbound ERP transactions, poor customer satisfaction, poor floor space utilisation, DIFOT , SOP Adherence,poor health of profit margins etc. as most of the resources are busy and heavily invested in performing picking plus packing

There is a definite need to think outside-the-box in such a way that picking resources have negligible walking and forklift movement. Our estimate says there is an opportunity to optimise the walking and forklift movements such that it can result in at least 50% gain in number of picks per day with the same resources. This itself can unlock a huge potential for growth and prove to be of significant advantage against your competitors. 

One of the biggest challenges would be to come up with a cultural shift that is required to sustain any solution envisaged that stays longer, just like we did for this large Australian Supply Chain and Logistics organisations resulting in their increased ability to serve more customers with the same resources 

Our Mission at Future State Partners

We are on a mission to make happier workplaces a reality by empowering our community to
conduct positive improvements and changes independently both at work and personal lives

Learn more about conducting orbenefitting lean site assessments  bycontacting our expert Practitioners by emailing us (info@fspr.com.au) or calling us (02 8311 8100(24X7)) 

How to maximise the gains using well understood change journey today? 

Do you want to know a best way to remain competitive and win against uncertainty?

We would love to hear your story during a exploratory conversation , so please don't hesitate to book in for one now (please click here or email us info@fspr.com.au)  to reach out experts at Future State Partners and Practioners . 

We would love to make it easier for you in the same way we have  helped so many leaders and team members in their journey towards change that can last for longer term results 

Ready to start on your own? 

This is a super good news that you have decided to take the first step and we appreciate you and your teams in taking first step. You are not alone and we would encourage you to use live support from our industries leading practioners by accessing accurate template library for free. Please click here to access them.

 

Lean Six SIgma, Change Managment, Lean tools, Continuous Improvement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, DIFOT , process improvement