Lift trucks are small industrial vehicles that have attachments which enable it to move and raise a range of different cargo. These types of equipment are very useful within factories and in warehouses, and are usually used in dockyards, shipping and receiving, construction, aviation and agricultural industries.
Lift trucks operate on a rear-wheel drive system and this makes driving somewhat strange when compared to a standard car or truck. Since these types of equipment carry their cargo at the front, the center of gravity is consistently changing and this can make the forklift unstable.
Packing operations are improved in order to make sure that packers receive complete orders. The packers are too busy to be running all-around the warehouse concerned with anything missing and are not concerned with whether or not the order is complete. It's a good idea to see if packers have enough space by observing their activities and making sure that they have adequate room so that they are in a safe working environment. If packers are tripping over boxes or bumping into each other, hazardous situations could happen.
One more great idea is to provide a consistent workflow in the packing area. By ensuring packing operations do not fluctuate between rush hour activity and dead periods, everything will run in a smooth manner. If any fluctuations are detected, it might be a good idea to revise your picking method so as to make sure that everything is efficiently working.
Your operators should be able to provide you with gain input. If you teach material handling and forklift operators and warehouse workers about process improvement, you would improve overall effectiveness drastically.
Another approach is to ask the employees to identify one task they do and to detail all of the steps involved in performing the task. Then ask for opinion on how this method could be improved. Normally, there are many good suggestions the employees will come up with so as to help streamline their work and improve overall effectiveness.
In order to decipher their process tricks, another good method is to observe the best operators. After that, have those operators teach other workers how to save time, and effort. If you this, you might be able to considerably improve your effectiveness and discover a real leader amongst the operators.