Just because you took the first steps to improve your warehouse efficiency with a new Warehouse Management System does not mean your work is done. In order to make the most of your new technology, you will need to conduct ongoing analysis and make minor corrections to your operation as you discover inefficiencies. It simply isn't enough to gather data unless you are going to use it to effect change.
Reviewing Current Performance
The first step in the analysis and correction process is to review your current performance metrics. Ideally, you should be comparing these numbers to your competition to determine whether or not you are operating at peak warehouse efficiency. The use of external benchmarks drawn from competitors ensures that you have your sights set on real-world numbers. As you break down each metric, you can determine your strengths and weaknesses. This is an important part of moving forward with process improvements, as you can focus on the areas where you are lagging behind while keeping up the areas where you already excel.
Gathering Intel
As part of your analysis and correction process, you should also be engaging your employees. If you hand reports off to a manager who reads the numbers from the chart each week without any explanation, your employees are probably not invested in what those numbers actually mean. Thus, they are less likely to provide you with helpful feedback that can actually make a difference in reaching your goals. Throughout your analysis process, it is helpful to choose one metric at a time and bring it into the spotlight. Define the metric and what it measures, and discuss the trends you are seeing in your warehouse compared to competitors. Give your employees a chance to help you solve the problem based on their knowledge and experience. They may have even worked for the competitor in the past and learned the secret to success.
Making Corrections
Harping on employees to turn out more work, faster, with greater accuracy rarely gets results. In order to make permanent and effective improvements in your warehouse efficiency, you need to modify your processes. It is important to remember that this requires trial and error, and even the best simulations and forecasts cannot account for every possibility. As you make changes, do so in a controlled and measurable way. The only way to know if the change has produced results is if you can measure the output the same way you did before. If you change too many things at once, you could throw your team into chaos and have a negative impact on warehouse efficiency. Focus on taking little steps that can incrementally build up to major improvements.
Having a Warehouse Management System in place to drive warehouse efficiency is not the end of your journey. It is merely a means to an end which still requires guidance from you and your team. The analysis and correction process comes after you have gathered all available data and found areas that are ripe for improvement. You must follow through on these areas to realize the full potential of your warehouse management software.
