In this episode, I discuss warehouse standards and their importance. This has been one of the most important things to getting fully effective processes in place during my career in warehousing.
Standards Breakdown
- What is a standard?
- A process that is proven to be effective and is repeatable with the desired outcome
- Rules that are put in place to ensure the right outcome is achieved every time
- How to develop a standard
- Map out your process that you want to standardize
- Include all aspects of the process; no matter how small
- Evaluate the process to see if it makes sense; can you improve any steps?
- Ensure the process gives you the desired outcome
- Get feedback from the parties doing the process
- Document, document, document
- If the standard is not documented then it might as well not exist
- Tribal knowledge will kill you when the person with the knowledge leaves
- Everything should be documented and readily accessible for reference
- Update documents accordingly when changes are made
- Create a standard for organizing your documents
- Training
- The key to having your standards succeed is to ensure the training is robust
- All employees should be well versed in the standard and trained from when they begin
- Do not throw them out there and train later
- Start them right and with the expectation
- Follow up on training periodically and ensure that it is top of mind
- Improvements
- Be sure to review your standards for potential improvements periodically
- Value your employee’s input; they know the process the best
- If something doesn’t make sense question it
The New Warehouse Podcast
