Among the many benefits provided by RF (radio frequency)-based warehouse management systems (WMS) are built-in tools for enhanced labor management. Because workers input data each time they receive, put away, move, select or load product, the WMS automatically captures an audit trail of every task performed, when, and by whom.

This information becomes a rich database of performance history that managers can use to analyze worker productivity, reward top producers, coach lagging performers and improve workflow scheduling.

With systems, increasingly common today, that actually direct workers from task to task, the WMS itself also uses the data it collects on worker performance to continually improve its own performance in scheduling and assigning tasks, creating, in effect, an automatic, built-in engine for continuous productivity improvement.

For Anheuser-Busch distributor House of LaRose (Cleveland, Ohio), which consolidated two separate facilities into a single, high-volume distribution center several years ago, a WMS became a necessity not only for keeping accurate track of product, but also for managing its manpower.

“When we moved into our new facility, we went from a 100-percent paper-based environment to a 100-percent RF and voice pick environment. If we hadn’t done so, we’d be struggling,” says Dave Mansky, director of sales.   

“We were always running off key operating indicators to try to keep track of productivity, so we had an idea of some performance standards. But moving into a much bigger facility, we had to find some way to negate the extra distance our workers would be traveling,” adds Larry Crabbe, vice president of operations. The WMS, with its ability to direct workers through the facility for utmost efficiency, helped the company take productivity to a whole new level.

“The system allows you to do a much better job matching up your manpower to your volume and activities, because you can plan an entire day’s work based on the projected hours it will take and the kind of pick or replenishment productivity you can get, both overall, or even by specific individuals,” Crabbe points out. As the day unfolds, supervisors can adjust on the fly, he adds, because they also can monitor workflow, both in absolute terms, and against the system’s projections, in real time.

For some companies, a WMS becomes a perfect platform for instituting performance-based pay for associates like selectors and loaders, because it can provide easily accessible reports on pick, load and error rates, by individual. For unionized shops like House of LaRose, where negotiated standards are not part of the contract, the WMS can still be used to reward performance.

“We regularly give out prizes for the top performers in different task areas. We also regularly post individual productivity results, which creates a peer pressure incentive, as guys try to top each other. There’s a lot you can do with performance information, even if you don’t have negotiated standards,” Crabbe notes.

All House of LaRose operations managers are paid based on the increased productivity of their crews, he adds. Since moving into its current facility, the company has continued to increase warehouse throughput year after year, in every facet of the operation.

“When we started with the system, we were spending 40 minutes on a truck. Now we’re down to an average of 20 to 25 minutes per truck,” Crabbe points out.

An exciting feature of the latest generation of WMS systems, from a productivity standpoint, is the ability to report on productivity in real time. Many systems today come with graphical dashboard interfaces, which let warehouse managers see at a glance what percent of a shift’s total workload is complete at any time, compared to the system’s projections. This enables supervisors to direct the system to reconfigure the workflow and task assignments in real time, as the shift unfolds, to make sure the trucks that have to get out by a certain time get out by that time.  

M. S. Walker, Inc. (Somerville, Mass.) utilizes what it calls a “stealth report” on its system, which alerts supervisors to associates who may be literally “asleep on the job.”

“If an associate is logged on, and there’s been no activity from his terminal for some set period after his last task, a little window pops up on the dispatch terminal, alerting the supervisor to the inactivity. He can then send someone out to find that worker and see whether there’s some problem, or if someone’s just asleep on his pallet jack,” relates Michael Saitow, M. S. Walker chief information officer.

 From Beverage World February 15, 2008