How do you know when a process is broken? The simple answer is, “When you consistently do not get the results you expect.” But, the real question is, “Why are you not getting the results you expect?” Determining a solution here often requires inspection, evaluation, and study – all of which takes time; time your people may not have available. Let Waypoint take a look for you. You also will benefit from an experienced, objective, and unbiased eye. When processes are improved, stress and waste are reduced.
Brief Case Study
There is a Warehousing and Distribution company that had moved into a larger warehousing facility. The move was a bit rough, and could perhaps be best described as a “mad dash.” The product was basically thrown into the new facility, and was only loosely organized, much in the same way it had been in the old warehouse – just with more space. And it remained painfully this way for nearly a year. There was very little signage, order, or control of the storing and loading system. It goes without saying that the operation was rife with waste.
Waypoint was brought in to help them rethink the warehousing of the product, and design a new approach to loading the trucks. An organized and orderly design of product locations was drawn up, with the loading process in mind. New racking was purchased, assembled and labeled according to the design schematic. Customer orders were grouped by truck and delivery location in the EAS, and the orders would be gathered on pallets by size (large to small) along a one-way path through the warehouse. The pallets would then be reverse-loaded into the trucks, with first deliveries loaded last.
The new process delivered over 50% labor in savings, and countless more in reduced loss and damage.
