Reduce Warehouse Labor Costs

Labor costs often account for more than 50 percent of a warehouse’s total operating costs. Reducing labor costs is an important aspect to achieve a healthy bottom line.  The ongoing challenge is to manage those costs without jeopardizing customer service and reducing productivity.  Identifying the problem is the first step in dealing with labor costs. Labor Performance LMS reduces labor costs while improving productivity. Make Labor Processes More Efficient Inefficiencies in labor processes waste labor hours.  While you can always be better it pays to review your processes.  It’s important to separate inefficient processes from slow-moving employees.  A review of your day-to-day procedures and methods can uncover many opportunities for productivity enhancements and labor cost savings.  Receiving and putaway is an area where waste occurs.  Putaway operators need to commence activity immediately and move through their work quickly.  Pallet stacking, finding storage locations, keypunching and inventory search and retrieval often cost valuable time.  Order picking, packing, checking and shipping is another area where waste occurs. Order pickers may be slow or waste time.  Pick locations could be hard to find.  Picking multiple orders instead of single orders can be slow.  Poor organization of the pick line results in high activity products being picked in the furthest locations away from the shipping dock. Inaccurate replenishments of pick locations generate many pick errors. Labor Performance LMS improves processes because they receive attention.  Improving processes increases productivity and pay.  Employees are motivated to improve processes because they see the rewards. Engage More Employees Disengaged employees have a negative impact on an organization.  They are employees who aren’t committed to their job and do just enough work to get by.  They rarely take the initiative and prefer to stay in the background.  They waste time and stand around.  They often have attendance issues and are usually the least cooperative. They are usually the least productive employees in the warehouse.  Labor Performance LMS can engage more employees in the process.  Employees see a direct benefit to being engaged in the process. Reduce Staff Management Issues The methods for motivating operators are unique for each individual, but there is certainly a mix of motivational tactics that can work in your operation. Front-line supervisors have a major impact on employee performance.  Setting goals and expectations, training, performance reviews and communication are areas where supervisors play a significant role.  Are you using monetary rewards where employees can directly impact their pay?  Employee recognition is often overlooked as a motivator.  Recognizing good performance in a meaningful way motivates employees. Considering the happiness and comfort of your employees can lead to a more productive workforce and lower annual labor costs. Labor Performance LMS offers supervisors bonuses for improving productivity and reducing costs.  By providing key performance an incentive, the organization’s focus and direction are clearly understood.