Distribution Center Optimization Services
Do you find yourself trying to ‘squeeze every last bit of life’ out of the facility you’re in even though you know that your current operations aren’t sustainable long-term? Do you wish you could address these issues before they become critical?
Facility Operations Assessment
Every situation is unique, but, at Sedlak Management Consultants, we typically help clients in need of distribution and warehouse process improvement by starting with an assessment. We begin with an on-site review of the current situation in which we tour the operation and interview key personnel. From the information gathered in this step, we can easily identify several improvements with substantial “bang for the buck” that we’ll share right away.
We’ll take the rest of the information back to our offices and develop a report of the key challenges, investigate potential solutions, then develop a report of the findings. This is a short-term project that results in a laundry list of improvement ideas, each with rough budget costs, estimated impact on the operation and expected ease of implementation.
Facility Operations Assessment
So many of our warehouse and distribution center optimization assessments result in the following advice, that we’ll give it to you for free:
Labor performance. The labor management systems (LMS) available now can bring great results. We’re all for them for the client who has the means. If your company is not so lucky, there are some great ways to improve performance results in less sophisticated ways, such as working with your employees to develop standard operating procedures.
Offer routine training programs. Refreshers for existing employees. Basic training for new-hires and cross training. Shadowing an existing employee for an hour then cutting them loose simply doesn’t give the new guys the best chance for success in the operation.
Ergonomics. OK, here, we engineers have to get off the high horse a little. We’re notorious for prioritizing cube utilization over operator accessibility (they can stand on this stool, can’t they?) and designing carts that would be perfect for us if we were picking and packing product. But when your average employee is 5’0” tall… Fortunately, the solutions tend to be relatively inexpensive whether it’s adjusting the height of a table or buying a new cart or, in the case of the high shelves, re-slot the slowest moving SKUs to those locations.
Slotting. Very few companies do this right. There are some great programs available for constant SKU/location assignment optimization. If you’re not ready to invest in one of these programs, a good old fashioned Excel spreadsheet with some sales data can give you some great results – be sure to include product cube in your analysis. We’ll be happy to work with you on the first attempt.
Save steps and reduce touches. Can you stock the pick location from receiving? Can a report or process be tweaked to more closely match the needs of the operation? What about interleaving putaway and picking tasks so you’re not traveling through the warehouse or distribution center with an empty fork, pallet or cart?
Lighting. People need good lighting to effectively do their jobs. With all of the great energy efficient options for bright lights in the big warehouse or distribution center, there’s really no excuse for keeping employees in the dark.
In addition to the common problems listed above, we’ll be looking for opportunities to better utilize your space or more efficiently set up your distribution center or warehouse. We may recommend equipment investments, material handling layout changes, information systems changes, or outsourcing certain operations. We’ll look for potential cost savings in the areas of labor, utilities, transportation and inventory. We pride ourselves on giving sound and practical advice. We don’t recommend change for the sake of change. And, we take advantage of technologies that make sense for your operation.
Creating a Path to Facility Operations Success
To conclude the assessment project, we like to work with you to choose the top priority improvements and create an actionable plan for going forward. We don’t want to leave you high and dry with great ideas and no idea of how to execute. We’ll determine which opportunities can be handled in-house and which require a proposal or referral from Sedlak.
Contact Us – Distribution and Warehouse Process Improvements
The path to distribution and warehouse process improvement begins with an operations assessment. To learn how our process improvement experts might be able to help, call us at 216-206-4700 or fill out our contact form and one of our professionals will be in touch shortly to discuss your specific needs.