Eliminating Waste in your Warehouse

Waste of overproduction

The waste of overproduction arises where we produce more than is required or before it is required, this can lead back to in-accurate planning and forecasting. And of course requires additional warehouse space and resource to deal with it.

Waste of Inventory

When work-in-process builds up in front of a process, this work-in-process has to wait, the longer the ques, the longer the wait. Excess inventory ties up capital, hides defects in the supply chain and requires additional warehouse resource, warehouse space and time to store.

The Waste of Waiting

Whether is a plumber at home on $70 per hour we have kept waiting or a team of 15 staff on $30 per hour the labour costs alone associated with the waste of waiting add up. Sometimes a hard one to measure but a real indicator of inefficiencies within the supply chain and warehousing flow.

Waste of Transport

This is a very real waste within the warehouse and distribution area. Not only waste associated with trucked transport (returning and sending incorrectly picked orders) but also with people and machines. Common in inefficient warehouses, overstocked crowded warehouses or in-correctly setup warehouses where staff on expensive MHE will be moving 10 pallets of stock to reach access to the one pallet of stock they require, this is all wasted transport and motion.

Wasted Motion

Again, potentially a huge amount of motion (which = $ hourly rate) is spend doing what should be the simplest of tasks. A good example here is the pick face set up of the warehouse, does it flow in one direction from start to finish in an organised, sensible flow when picking and order or all over the place. Are the forklift operators having to drive from one end of the warehouse to the other each time a delivery is made.

Waste of Processing

In the warehouse and distribution environment this can relate to many situations from duplicated data entry on orders, having to capture the data multiple times on multiple forms (this is especially a waste within the procedure/process controlled GMP warehouse environment), one off "special" orders or process's that involve multiple tasks.

Waste caused by Rejects and Recycle

The common form of waste by reject in the warehouse is the incorrect order pick. Sent to the customer (transport cost), checked by the customer and found to be incorrect, (customer satisfaction cost), then returned by the customer (again transport cost back), repicking the order (picker labour cost) and reshipping the correct order (again transport cost).

This list of seven wastes is but a brief snap shot of wastes within any warehouse and distribution network, all of which have a negative cost to the business associated to them. Contact LogisticsConsult.co.nz if you would like to start exploring the wastes that are hidden within your warehouse.