21 mistakes adding cost and killing productivity in your warehouse - #12

12.    Cluttered and badly organised operations benches

Quite frankly many operations benches that I see are a mess, cluttered and covered in stuck orders, returns, old paperwork, out of date work instructions and broken staplers and tapeguns.  There is no point having a highly efficient warehouse if you lose your hard won productivity gains with slow administration in receiving and order confirmation/packing freight. 

Here are my tips for best practice in operations workbench organisation

• The first aim of an operations bench should be to have nothing on it apart from work in progress.  Computers, printers, labels, pens, cartons, pending paperwork should be stored off the surface of the bench itself.  Either above or below.  This way nothing will get lost or mislaid.  Everything is easily to hand and never in the way.
• Custom make your workbench to suit your process.  Make sure everything is in arms reach from the operator.  This can be as simple as installing some shelves and Dexion bins to give everything a place.  If you work space is limited you can install monitor and keyboard stands to get the computers off the work top.  Printers can be installed under the bench or on a separate stand.
• Lay a padded anti-fatigue mat in front of the bench.
• The areas around the bench must be kept clear also with a standardised workflow of products and paperwork in and out.
• Sometimes the best bench is mobile.  Breaking down a mixed pallet of small items can be done on the dock with a multi-level trolley/bench that allows you to sort, check off, book in a delivery and then roll the trolley to the rack for put-away.
• Similarly on the outbound process, orders picked to a carton on a picking trolley can be checked, labelled and closed on the trolley and then rolled to the dock for staging ready for pick-up.
• Take advantage of wireless mobile terminals, and printers or even a laptop to allow transactions to be completed on the spot without the need for constant travel to/from a bench.  Installing a wireless network in your warehouse (even a cheap one) will free you up to perform warehouse transactions at the point of activity.  This is a key driver of efficiency and accuracy and is a good interim step if you have not yet invested in a WMS.

This is post is taken from an ebook that is now available as a bonus to members of the Warehouse Performance Initiative (WPI*).

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