Article 004 Warehouse Efficiency - What to audit ?

You get the impression that your warehouse is running optimally , but you're not sure .

You've decided to perform an audit to make sure that the the vision you have in your mind are backed up by some real data / metrics ;

What should you audit ?

Here are some aspects of your Warehouse Operations that you can start with :

Your warehouse’s capacity and throughput :

Warehouse Capacity :

Calculate the Total Size of Your Warehouse Then, subtract square footage used for office, restrooms, and other non-storage areas. Then, multiply your remaining square footage by the warehouse space clear height to arrive at your storage capacity in cubic feet.

Warehouse Throughput :

To calculate the throughput rate, track the movement of goods through the warehouse for a given period of time. Divide the number of items moved through the warehouse by the amount of labor hours consumed. This is the throughput time per item .

Your warehouse’s layout and flow :

Flow :

Warehouse flow is basically as the uninterrupted movement of goods, personnel , and traffic within your warehouse facility .Your objective should be to minimize on any areas of high traffic or potential for 'accidents' with people & goods crashing into each other . The right people need to be in the rigght places and the paths must be clearly marked and 'walk / fork / pick 'paths need to be clearly defined .

Accessibility :

Make sure that your storage locations match the goods you are going to store and also the equipment you are going to use to put away and pick those goods . Also , make sure that your aisle walkways are wide enough for these equipments .

Space :

Often , specific areas like 'Stage' locations are overlooked . The size of your stage locations will determine if it eventually becomes a bottleneck to you operations . Better to sacrifice storage space then to restrict movements of goods coming and going out your warehouse .

Your customer service performance metrics

You need to make sure that you are hitting your OTIF (On Time and In Full) KPI's . Audit how often your personnel pick the wrong items or incorrect quantities that get caught in 'outbound stage' and how often you get returns for wrong shipment .

Your systems are secure and performing to the best of their abilities

You should be able to audit how your technology platforms perform because they are Mission Critical systems .

1. How many transactions per second can it transact ?

2. How often your system 'goes down' ?

3. Is your System up to date ?

4. Does it have the right fuctionalities to support your operations optimally ?

5. Is it secure internally and externally .

Summary :

An audit will definitely give you a close to accurate picture of how efficient your warehouse operations is running and also give you an oppurtunity to tweak processes and systems that may need a little grease to get them running more smoothly .