How To Improve Employee Safety And Productivity

It’s annual planning time: time to sit down, roll up your sleeves, crunch the numbers, and decide how you’re going to meet next year’s strategic goals for your warehouse facility or distribution center.

For many companies, this boils down to finding ways to improve productivity. Even incremental improvements in productivity add up over the course of a year. Why not identify and implement as many productivity boosters as you can in your facility and see how far you can take next year’s production over what you were able to accomplish this year?

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

10 Tips for Increasing Productivity in Your Warehouse Next Year

  1. Keep your fastest-selling items in the easiest-to-access locations.
  2. Clearly define all storage areas and bin locations to cut down on the time it takes to find items.
  3. Look into using facility management software to streamline and analyze work flow.
  4. Make sure the metrics you are using to track productivity are relevant to ROI.
  5. Encourage employees to think about how the work could be made more efficient and hold regular meetings to discuss their ideas for improvement.
  6. Adopt and maintain a work systems approach such as Lean Six Sigma in your facility.
  7. Group and package components that are often used together into kits to use space more efficiently and reduce inventory handling time.
  8. Make smart use of vertical space.
  9. Encourage friendly competition between work teams.
  10. Take good care of your employees; when they feel respected and appreciated, they will respond in kind.

 

Productivity is not the only important factor in running an efficient facility. You need to keep an eye out for safety, as well.

Safety Matters

Of course, we care about our employees and don’t want them to get hurt. Though beyond the human element, there are solid financial reasons to make safety a priority, too.

Accidents are about the most unproductive occurrence that can happen in your facility. Not only can they cause costly damage to inventory, equipment, and human life and limb, but think about what happens to work flow when an accident takes place. That’s right — everyone stops what they are doing to assess what is happening, take steps to help, or gossip about what happened.

Putting good safety measures in place is one of the best investments you can make in your facility. Be sure to address safety from all angles: HR (training), operations (safety procedures), and the physical layout and structure of your facility.

How HVLS Fans Help Keep Your Employees Productive and Safe

An excellent way to improve both safety and productivity is to install one or more high-volume, low-speed (HVLS) fans in your facility. Why? Let’s count the ways:

  1. HVLS fans help keep employees comfortable. Comfortable employees make fewer mistakes and are less susceptible to accident, so you can enjoy greater productivity.
  2. HVLS fans help prevent sick building syndrome. Better air means lower absenteeism and healthier, more alert and productive employees.
  3. HVLS fans’ evaporative cooling effect can help reduce or prevent sweating slab syndrome. If this has been an issue in your building, you’ll appreciate the reduced risk of slip hazard as well as inventory and/or equipment damage due to excess moisture.
  4. HVLS fans are super efficient. Because they use so little power, HVLS fans provide one of the biggest bangs for the buck of any heating or cooling equipment. Plus, they’re not just for summertime use; run them in reverse in winter to keep warm air where it’s most used. That way they’ll save you money year-round.

 

What’s your productivity plan for the coming year? To learn how HVLS fans can help you meet your productivity goals for your facility, call VividAir at 844-GO-FAN-ME, or contact us here online.