08 Feb Does Time = Money?
When the guys at Superior Vendall in Kansas City first installed LightSpeed, they ended the snack portion of the pick line after the 4th section. They used the other two sections for their miscellaneous beverages – energy drinks, coffees, juices, etc. In fact, at the time they did this, beverages on carton flow shelving was pretty rare. It was a great idea.
As part of our standard set up, the printer was located at the end of the line. They had six sections, four of which were snack and two of which were beverages. The beverage line started in the 5th section and then wrapped around the back of the line to finish up with high volume beverages that were picked off pallets.
After a few weeks of observing their warehouse employees, they noticed the snack line employee would have to walk all the way to the end of the line to get the tote ticket for the order they just picked and then all the way back to the tote. The spot where the snack line ended was next to the door where the prekits would get moved to be loaded on the trucks.
For simple math, the snack line employee had to walk 16’ to get a tote ticket and 16’ back for EVERY order. Thirty-two feet for every ticket.
They decided to move the printer to the end of the snack line (the 4th section of the line). The printer was not being used for the beverages – that printer was on the back side. They simply built a small shelf for the printer to sit on and moved it 16’ to the end of the snack line.
And they saved 2 hours a day in labor. That is 10 hours a week and 40 hours a month. By simply moving a printer 16 feet.
So, go take a walk through your warehouse and see how many wasted steps your employees are taking. Sometimes the simplest change will pay the biggest dividend.
If you make a change in your warehouse layout let us know. We would love to share it with the LightSpeed community.
David
