The pressure to improve labour management:
- executive directive to decrease operating expenses
- seasonality / peak capacity concerns
- customer demand for faster order turnaround time
- customer demand for more customised services (value-add)
- employee turnover
- inability to service all available demand
Best-in-class strategic actions:
- implement more efficient warehouse processes
- invest in warehouse technologies to support labour productivity
- measure individual performance
- provide incentives for good performance
- manage staffing levels and mix
Best-in-class organisational differentiators:
- training materials are available for staff to review
- identified executive accountable for quality training
- on-boarding covers both warehouse processes and implemented technologies
- assigned mentors / coaches for new employees
Best-in-class performance measures:
- formalised reviews are performed on a regular basis to address staff performance
- employee-specific performance data collection
- regular performance analysis and reporting
Software and functionality leveraged by the best-in-class:
- warehouse management system
- labour management software
- engineered labour standards program
- identifies underperforming individuals
- prioritises a group of tasks by their relative urgency
- automatically assign tasks to workers
Advanced software features across maturity classes:
- operational reports analytics (e.g. pay variables, performance trends)
- predict labour requirements per day
- task management software
- xyz coordinates to calculate travel distance and time by aisle/ layout
- network-wide availability of labour reports or dashboards via the web
- ability to perform “what if” simulation of labour impact with layout changes
- BI / performance analytics applications (outside of LMS / WMS)
To achieve best-in-class performance, companies must:
- compare their capabilities against the top performers and build the business case to enhance company systems and technologies
- work on process improvements first and supplement with advanced features like engineered standards and incentives
- build competencies in the management team to utilise individual or group performance metrics to monitor and motivate the workforce
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