{"id":3401,"date":"2018-01-31T07:26:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T12:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=3401"},"modified":"2022-06-04T14:04:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T19:04:12","slug":"embrace-lean-warehousing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/embrace-lean-warehousing\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace Lean Warehousing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Charles Intrieri is a consultant with over 25 years of experience in Operational Excellence, Supply Chain & Logistics, and Metrics-driven Management.\u00a0 He has made available a number of reports and tools related to these areas on Flevy, which can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"pexels-photo-209251\"Lean is the elimination of all waste, increasing throughput and bringing value to the customer beyond their expectations.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even the most determined business optimist would be hard-pressed not to find a warehousing cost that isn’t creeping skyward. From the electricity powering the lights to the labor costs of each order picked, embracing “lean” principles is one of the few proven ways that a company can fight back from its bottom line.<\/p>\n

Upholding stagnant concepts such as “this is the way we’ve always done it<\/em>” will leave your business growth in a similar stagnant rut.<\/p>\n

One of the core concepts behind lean is the need to\u00a0look closely at operations within your warehouse, and never fall into the trap of complacency<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0even if<\/em>\u00a0things seem functional at the moment<\/em>. Costs saved now are capital for unexpected gaps later.<\/p>\n

In effect, a properly-executed lean philosophy acts as an insurance policy against every type of rising cost.<\/p>\n

Apply Lean to Your Physical Assets<\/h2>\n

Imagine you have 10 warehouse racks, but at any given time, you only use shelf space equivalent to 7 full racks. Those large gaps on each shelf aren’t hurting anyone, right?<\/p>\n

In fact, very few warehouse managers would see an issue with unused space.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider this:\u00a0each time one of your employees needs to pick an order’s worth of items from the shelves, they need to scan each rack<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whether that’s an in-depth look from shelf to shelf or a minute’s worth of quick glancing, that happens every single time an order is picked. If your warehouse handles 180 orders a day, that’s three hours – or more! – of labor wasted on that “harmless” empty space,\u00a0every single day<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Your physical stock and assets should always be efficiently filled and properly arranged to minimize wild goose chases.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not only are these chases unproductive for your operational ROI, but they also contribute to frustration and irritability on the part of your workforce.<\/p>\n

Apply Lean to Your Processes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Chances are, you have at least one wasteful process that happens every single day in your warehouse. Whether it’s a “workaround” for an outdated system your team no longer uses or a failure to rotate stock to reflect current demands, think of these issues as small cracks in an hourglass.<\/p>\n

#1: Profile Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first place to start is creating, or updating, a profile analysis \u2014 a description of the mix of products coming in and going out of the warehouse.<\/p>\n