Three Tips For Product Handling In Your Facility
When running a manufacturing plant or facility, your primary activity each day is likely to manufacture, box and ship products quickly. This is likely done with a workforce filled with equipment operators, packing staff and others. If you're running such a big operation and hope to expand even more, you'll need to improve productivity with these product handling suggestions.
Assess Existing Systems and Activities
Conveyor belt speed, overhead crane activity, forklift operation and other existing activities should be assessed in terms of speed and effectiveness. For instance, would more overhead cranes be helpful? Do your workers have enough conveyor belts to transport boxes so they don't need to walk across the facilities multiple times? Should the belts run more slowly to prevent mistakes or product damage? You may need to call product handling professionals to re-design your layout and make recommendations about the equipment and supplies you need as the facility grows.
Train New Hires
Your new hires might have already been screened for their ability to do the individual tasks that their job will entail. However, you and managers should be training them to understand how your particular company handles various challenges. They should also be trained on the most effective practices used throughout their department. For example, a new employee unloading boxes from delivery trucks can likely understand that the boxes need to go from the truck to the conveyor belt. However, you should train them regarding lifting the conveyor belt to a higher level to decrease their physical effort; they should also be trained with tips about how to make unloading the truck faster.
Watch Your Best People
You and your management team should always be watching your best people. Many times, focus is often on the employees with terrible product handling skills because they are delaying the entire operation. However, you should also be watching the quickest, best employees you have so that you can identify what they're doing differently. Perhaps your best forklift operator writes out a loading plan before they get into the forklift. Perhaps your most effective crane operator inspects the crane each morning to lubricate parts and catch any problems so that their crane never needs to be stopped in the middle of the day.
When growing a company and manufacturing more products, ensuring a better environment is key. Consult product handling services, ask your managers and watch your employees; increasing productivity and effectiveness is possible.