Whipping your warehouse into lean shape
Whether you make something or sell a service, the quest for increasingly efficient approaches drives businesses today. Ensuring that every step counts forges the foundation for quality products and sellable skills.
That’s why lean principles are especially relevant to warehouses and their efficient operations. But what exactly is lean, and how does it benefit the warehousing industry? Read on to find out how you can ‘lean’ your warehouse to greater efficiency.
What is lean?
Toyota, a Japanese company and global leader in the automotive industry, invented lean manufacturing in 1950. It focused on improving cost efficiency by reducing the waste of materials it used in its fabrication processes.
In short, lean is a structured approach to prevent waste in a process. It attempts to get rid of actions or methods that consume anything from tangible materials to manpower hours without adding value or contributing to efficiency. In principle, the procedure ‘leans’ on five pillars:
- Define the value – how much an action or process is worth to a customer.
- Measure the value stream by plotting every activity and resource that contributes to the overall value.
- Analyse material and labour contributions from the necessary and unnecessary.
- Improve your processes by creating and doing exactly what’s needed in the set timeframe. This mirrors a ‘nothing more, nothing less’ mindset and practice.
- Control over the mentioned first four pillars ensures that you keep lean in continuous, value-adding motion.
What is lean warehousing, and what are the benefits?
The lean method migrated to warehousing because a warehouse is much more than just a large storage room. This single setting deals with all the intricacies of logistics from receiving goods to sending them out via road, sea or air.
When applied in a warehouse, lean helps companies to address everyday challenges that cut into the bottom line. Some of these include operational costs, pressing lead times such as same-day deliveries, space demands and occupational hazards.
Overall, lean will increase your warehouse efficiency and help you get the most out of your assets. Specific lean warehousing benefits include:
- · Streamlined functions to get the job done faster.
- · Maximised asset utilisation.
- · Stock drives according to demand so that your inventory doesn’t sit on a shelf.
- · Prevent wasted time to get orders out promptly.
- · Systemised procedures to manage and handle numerous products.
- · Plotting the course for continuous development.
Lean shows us that something as simple as a fire extinguisher shadow board can improve safety by dedicating a spot and space for emergency equipment. It lets everyone know where to find the cylinder and immediately grabs attention if it’s missing.
Similarly, a hand protection shadow board with storage boxes at an entrance to a high-risk area keeps the PPE exactly where it’s needed the most. Employees can access the gloves without wasting time looking for a pair, while the storage boxes keep them undamaged and clean.
Wastage in a warehouse
A non-lean warehouse is littered with inefficient waste. Over the years, experts identified eight wastes of lean in a warehouse:
Transportation waste deals with the needless movement of goods. For example, if your in-demand SKUs sit at the back of your warehouse, it wastes transport time by fetching these via conveyor systems or warehouse vehicles to get them to a specified destination.
Inventory refers to having excess products or materials just sitting on a shelf and not doing anything to make money. This means that any goods not used for a present demand are a waste – for instance, outdated or expired articles.
Motion, like transportation, is concerned with the wasted movements of employees. When a worker walks long distances to an assigned area or reaches for the same tool time and again, that’s wasted motion.
Waiting for something to finish or start is a warehouse waste. This includes events such as a dormant forklift waiting on an operator or an order hanging back because of an absent packing ticket.
Over-production is an obvious waste because you make or order more goods than needed at the time – for example, assembling too many large boxes at once for smaller products.
Over-processing happens when you walk that extra mile when the customer didn’t ask for it. Going overboard wastes resources and materials.
Defects lead to double work because you didn’t get it right the first time. For example, re-labelling boxes and re-organising incorrectly stored items increase effort while reducing efficiency.
Skills waste occurs when you don’t capitalise on the talents and knowledge of your employees. For instance, efficiency suffers when you fail to consult your workers or use an untrained person to operate warehouse vehicles.
Getting your warehouse into shape
The first step in streamlined warehouse efficiency starts with your physical layout. A well-planned setup drives everything from productive movement flows to operational turnaround times and occupational safety.
An optimised layout helps you reach the larger goals of your business. To achieve this, you must consider how your:
- Inventory flows from the time you receive it to the time you send it on its way.
- Warehouse vehicles move to complete the point-A to point-B cycles in the best way possible.
- People move and operate to fulfil procedures.
Nothing sets a course better than a visual aid. Seton’s tough and durable floor tapes clearly mark the routes to be taken in your warehouse. You can also get these in reflective and luminous versions to increase visibility and boost overall safety.
The 5S system of lean warehousing
As said, lean warehousing targets waste and removes anything that doesn’t contribute to your bottom line or the bigger picture. The approach uses a 5S system – Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke in Japanese – to realise micro and macro efficiency:
Sort out what you need and don’t need. This entails removing outdated or hazardous materials, such as broken shelves, to unclutter your space. Remember, this also extends to movements and procedures, such as replacing manual with digital systems.
Straighten everything in places where they add the most value. For example, keep most-used objects in easy-to-reach spots or label goods so that they’re easy to locate. Include your warehouse signage in this process, as it also addresses occupational safety.
Shine to keep your warehouse spick and span. Here, you can do simple things such as placing bins in aisles and setting up schedules for after-shift cleans. Get cleaning station shadow boards for every aisle to streamline this ‘S’.
Standardise procedures for every section in your warehouse. You’ll automatically boost efficiency by implementing best practices. Remember, visual reminders such as placards are useful tools.
Sustain your efforts to cultivate continuous improvement. Create a culture of change that embraces the possibility of always doing better.
Don’t forget the sixth S: safety. A safe work environment prevents warehouse injuries, fatalities and litigation.
The HSE reported 23 fatal accidents involving moving objects such as forklifts in 2021/2022. To prevent becoming a statistic, the HSE recommends a thorough risk assessment followed by implementing the necessary steps to enhance warehouse safety.
Involve your employees in change decisions to get everyone on board with lean warehousing. Seton is at the ready with everything you need for your lean warehouse drive.