Are you looking for ways to increase warehouse productivity without purchasing more equipment? If so, you're far from alone.

At the height of the '90s economic boom, companies were hard pressed to find qualified people to work in their warehouses, a situation that motivated them to replace people with mechanized systems. In today's economy, by contrast, the focus for most companies has shifted to getting the most out of an existing workforce.

Doing so can pay big dividends for shippers and warehouse operators. As Robert Silverman, president of warehousing consultants Gross & Associates in Woodbridge, N.J., observes, "The smart use of manual labor translates into less up-front costs, more flexible operations, and overall lower risks to a company than the purchase of equipment."

To get more out of existing resources, warehouse managers must zero in on the factors that affect efficiency, identify the gaps or practices that hinder it, and develop simple, low-cost solutions to eliminate those problems. Specifically, they should look at five areas that affect warehouse workers' performance: work methods and processes, facility layout, incentive programs, morale and attitude, and education and training.

What follows are some ideas on ways to improve performance by addressing those areas.

1. Work Methods and Processes

Improving efficiency by changing work processes requires thinking "outside the box" and exploring new strategies. Here are some specific steps you can take:

Review existing procedures and practices. Are some standard procedures slowing your workers down? For example, are they picking one-handed because they're carrying a pick list in their other hand? A simple change, such as attaching a clipboard to the tote, pick cart, or pallet jack, will free both hands for picking and increase throughput, says Gross and Associates consultant Don Derewecki.

To identify activities that offer opportunities for improvement, use a process flow chart to describe in detail and quantify the time it takes to complete each component of those activities. (See Figure 1.) Focus on the tasks that regularly experience long delays and require extra travel, then try to develop ways to do them faster and more efficiently without adding or upgrading equipment.

Take advantage of the capabilities of existing information systems. As a first step, document how your information systems are now being used. Are you utilizing all of those systems' capabilities? Make the most of your existing WMS and other information systems to manage activities that have an impact on productivity, such as staff scheduling, order verification, order-picking procedures, and so forth. If, for example, your pick slips are not in slot-number sequence, use your WMS to sort pick slips in a pattern that will shorten pick paths and minimize or eliminate backtracking. (See Figure 2.)

Are your lift truck drivers working as efficiently as possible? If they're returning to the docks without loads or they don't have a list of tasks lined up, drivers may not be getting the direction they really need.

Whenever possible, use available technology to provide them with chronological lists of complementary tasks, a process known as "dual cycling" or "task interleaving." One example: directing a driver to put a pallet away, then retrieve a nearby pallet to replenish another pick location.

Determine if warehouse staff is using equipment properly and to its full potential. If your counterbalanced truck is capable of handling two pallets at a time, are you directing drivers to always move two pallets from dock to storage? If fast-moving items are creating bottlenecks on conveyors, pick those items first from a different area and use them as the pallet base for the remainder of the orders coming from the pick lines. Don't forget to keep up to date with maintenance in order to minimize equipment downtime.

Consider developing new strategies. You don't necessarily need more automation or equipment to implement new strategies for handling shipments and order fulfillment. Take cross docking, for example. You can get some of the benefits of cross docking even if you don't have a specially-designed facility. To identify cross-docking opportunities, about 48 hours in advance, screen all inbound shipments that are scheduled to be received on a specific day against orders that are scheduled to ship out that same day.

Use your WMS to better manage those flow-through activities. As you get more familiar with the process, you can make it standard procedure to cross dock popular items that are subject to highly predictable demand. You can also investigate moving completed pallets directly into waiting trailers to eliminate pre-load staging and retrieval.

Time-consuming dock and aisle congestion often can be resolved through better scheduling. Are pickers and stock replenishers getting in each other's way? Then try scheduling replenishment activities so they're completed before picking begins. Instead of letting vendors show up at your docks whenever they want, schedule specific appointment times or time windows for pickups and deliveries.

Other ways to eliminate congestion without physically changing the layout or buying additional equipment include expanding your operating hours, adding another shift, and batch-picking several orders at one time to reduce the number of trips to a pick location.

Periodically review existing strategies and resources. Your current work processes and equipment may have been efficient when you first put them into action, but it's likely that business conditions have changed since then. Review your operations regularly and modify them to meet changing needs and maximize productivity.

A particular slotting strategy, for example, may have worked well in the past but has become less efficient since the introduction of new products, packaging, and marketing tactics—a situation that forces pickers to work harder and longer. "If you look at a pallet being built and see small cartons mixed with big cartons, with workers double- and triple-handling product, turning cartons sideways with large, heavy cases on top, these signs are dead giveaways that you need to reslot," says Derewecki.

2. Facility Layout

Your warehouse layout itself may be slowing down workers and detracting from their productivity. Start by studying the flow of people and material. If you observe long horizontal runs, congestion, or frequent backtracking, then there could be a layout problem.

One thing to consider is removing racks to increase aisle widths. In very-narrow-aisle environments, you might balance work volumes among zones and across multiple aisles to keep congestion to a minimum. Try adding cross aisles to shorten pick paths and improve throughput. (For more ideas on warehouse designs that boost productivity, see "Better layout = Higher throughput" in the May 2003 issue of Logistics Management.)

Keep ergonomics in mind when designing the work space. People need to work in the "comfort zone" between their knees and shoulders to minimize physical strain and fatigue, which handicap performance. In the pick area, pickers should be able to access all product facings without requiring step stools or worse, climbing on shelving.

Before you modify a facility layout, though, be sure to think through the potential consequences of any change you're considering. What looks like a good idea on the surface might end up causing more trouble further down the line. A case in point: "It's a good thought to have fast movers [located] close to where you receive and ship," says Derewecki. "Too often, however, it is carried to the extreme, so that you have multiple vehicles trying to operate in the same aisle with no bypass capabilities."

3. Incentive Programs

Incentive programs have been shown to significantly increase workers' efficiency. A 1999 survey of motivation and retention programs in the warehouse, conducted by the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC), found that 90 percent of the respondents deemed monetary awards and incentives for safety and attendance to be the most effective motivation tools.

Effective incentive programs in the warehouse should include reasonable standards that are established only after a detailed methods study has streamlined the operation. Derewecki also recommends including a cap in incentive programs. He's seen cases where warehouse employees were so determined to earn bonuses that they pushed themselves too hard and eventually suffered injuries.

Although incentive programs can be very effective in boosting warehouse employees' performance, some companies have found themselves in situations where the incentive plan was costing more than it was paying back. "You may save the equivalent of two hourly people by having standards and incentives, but you pay out the same equivalent in incentive money, administration, and enforcement of the plan," consultant Derewicki cautions.

4. Morale and Attitude

Employees who feel good about their company tend to work harder for it. It's important, therefore, to think carefully about how you communicate with employees, since what you say and how you say it has a big impact on their attitudes and morale. Silverman suggests a "soft" approach to discussions about workers' performance. "Monitor how [workers] are doing and give them simple feedback," he says. "For those who are falling behind, let them know that you need them to do better, and indicate how much better."

The physical environment can have a significant impact on morale, too. Employees do their best in a comfortable, clean, and safe working environment. It's important that they are tasked with reasonable work requirements that they can carry out repetitively without straining themselves. Be sure to provide adequate lighting, a comfortable working temperature, proper breaks, and padded mats for high-traffic areas.

5. Education and Training

Finally, educating each person in the most efficient way to carry out his or her assigned tasks, as well as training everyone in how to safely and intelligently utilize existing equipment, is essential for maximizing performance. The need for up-front training is obvious, but periodic training updates are also necessary because procedures often need to change when business requirements change. And although efficiency depends in large part on teaching the discipline of following established processes and procedures, from a morale standpoint, it's important that you also allow employees to provide feedback on operational matters.

Go for Flexibility

Given the state of the economy, improving the efficiency of your warehouse labor force instead of buying automated and mechanized systems makes good sense for many companies. Those systems generally are set up to meet specific product handling and volume requirements—something you may want to avoid in uncertain economic times, when it's difficult to predict the volume and mix of future orders. With a highly efficient, flexible workforce, on the other hand, you should be able to handle almost anything that comes your way with little or no extra cost.

Maida Napolitano was a senior industrial engineer at Gross & Associates for more than 10 years. She is the principal author of several books on warehouse operations.