Obvious but invisible
Hadrian Logistics Solutions was engaged by a large 3PL to perform some process measurement and develop productivity benchmarks for three of their DCs.
At one site, it was noted that order pickers spent a significant amount of time cutting up, flattening and disposing of large cartons once they had selected the last unit from inside. Likewise, it was also noted that pickers spent a lot of time assembling pre-made cartons to pick units into.
After measuring a range of selection assignments, Hadrian was able to report on the impact that these two actions were having on output.
Pickers were spending a staggering 10% of their time between building cartons to pick product into and disposing of cartons they had just emptied in the pick slot.
The solution was obvious, but for some reason the client did not see it - possibly because they had never been able to quantify the impact these two simple actions were having.
Post Hadrian’s visit, pickers began recycling the cartons they had previously had to dispose of, using them rather than purpose built cartons to pick into.
It all adds up
This translated into an almost 10% time saving as well as significantly reducing the amount of money the company had to spend on purchasing purpose made cartons.
Other supply chain consultancies may try to offer you ‘high end’ (read costly) solutions to fix your problems. At Hadrian we have learnt that in many cases, as far as warehousing is concerned, it is typically the small, simple things that will really add up to make a difference.