Tag: Management Tips

Top Tips to Improve Performance and Efficiency in Warehouses

Tips to Improve Performance and Efficiency in Warehouses
Tips to Improve Performance and Efficiency in Warehouses

Warehouse management can be a tricky operation, requiring great concentration and skill, and lots of inventory lists that need to be checked and re-checked to make sure all the material that is shifted in and out of the warehouse is the right product and quantity. Here are some warehouse management tips that can make the entire process simpler and more efficient:

1. Confirm Advanced Shipping Notice

An “Electronically transmitted Advanced Shipping Notification” is a cutting-edge shipping solution that many distributors have still not started started to implement. Using the electronic option allows for more efficient planning of the distribution procedure, and reduces delays and disruptions.

2. Employ Bin Locations

Making use of bin locations allows products to be located much faster, since it allows you to locate the product on the basis of sales volume, which means having to do less legwork to retrieve the key items that are sold the most.

3. Transparency of Operation

Work done within the warehouse must be as transparent as possible, with your keeping track of every piece of inventory that is sold or bought. This allows for easy spotting of mistakes and errors, and rapid correction.

4. Have an Emergency Response Plan

Along with the usual warehouse management tips, remember to keep alternative plans in place for potential fires, lockouts, and other hazards that can occur unexpectedly and disrupt work flow.

The next time you have to deal with warehouse inventory, remember to call on DJ Products for all of your moving and packing needs. Our range of vehicle products offer the latest in cutting-edge solutions to make your job and life easier!

How to Choose the Right Property Manager

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Property Managers

Property managers execute day-to-day operations while also offering strategic insight. The right individual will perform reliably and suggest new methods of reducing costs or improving market value.

Lock down the nitty-gritty details to make sure that your new property manager will do the job as you see fit, and conform to your expectations. Recommendations from condo expert Marilyn Lincoln include:

  • Check references in the manager’s portfolio
  • Look for candidates with ideas to improve operating efficiency and market value of the property
  • Address decision-making authority and delineate the chain of command in the contract
  • Agree to method and timeliness of communications
  • Have a lawyer review the contract
  • Hire a manager who performs well under pressure and goes “the extra mile” to find solutions

You want a property manager who can implement money-saving solutions that improve your own bottom line. For example, our dumpster movers can be used to automate the task of pushing a dumpster across the property or to the collection area. Motorized dumpster movers can be operated by virtually anyone. Could this automated solution reduce the number of employees you need? Would an employee injury due to stressful physical labor cripple your budget?

Great property managers conduct this sort of problem solving and cost-benefit analysis everyday. Make sure you hire a managerial brain, with ideas about how to improve property management effectiveness.

At DJ Products, our battery-powered dumpster movers and waste bin tows represent an incredible source of value for your condo or apartment complex. Talk to us about the solutions we offer, and make sure your next manager investigates solutions for boosting efficiency and reducing worker injuries.

Property Manager News: Tenant Management Moves to a Smart App

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Apps are The Future For Property Management

Online rent payments have streamlined things for property managers for years, and now there’s an app to handle even more tasks. Landlords in Washington, D.C. and its Maryland neighbors can use Atlas Lane to conduct a variety of business:

  • communicate with tenants
  • let tenants confirm their own repair visits
  • collect rent
  • receive Schedule E tax forms
  • renew compliance documents
  • evaluate prospective tenants

Do You Need a Smart App for Tenant Management?

Apps like this can negate the need for more time-consuming and costly measures like paperwork, managing emails and voicemails, and other more manual tasks. Atlas Lane is only available in the D.C. area for now, but the national market appears prime for distribution.

The cost for using Atlas Lane is 8% of monthly rent. If that seems high, consider how much you already spend on property management tools, and more importantly, the cost of your time.

Because an app can track and record a service request, there’s no risk of forgetting about a repair call. Back-and-forth gets reduced because you can ask the tenant follow-up questions through the app. And the tenant confirms the appointment, meaning a few less phone calls for you.

Automation is Key for Property Managers

The more you and your staff can automate. It’s the same principle behind our motorized dumpster tugs — if an employee can use dumpster tugs to move containers rather than using strenuous, dangerous physical force, the job gets done safely and quickly. For property managers, automating your paperwork and communications through an app does the same thing.

For more info about dumpster tugs and other ergonomic equipment, contact DJ Products.

Five Warehouse Management Tips: Industrial Cart Mover

Warehouse Management Tips
Warehouse Management Tips

Looking to boost warehouse efficiency this quarter with an Industrial Cart Mover? Management can take steps to provide immediate and ongoing benefits. Here are 5 warehouse management tips for faster, safer, smoother operations:

Prioritize Cleaning

In a clean warehouse, workers have a safer and more efficient workplace. Encourage employees to clean spills and messes immediately, and stick to a routine cleaning schedule.

Be Open to Feedback

Some of the best warehouse management tips come from your employees. They may spot inefficient or troublesome aspects of the warehouse that managers may not realize. Good feedback channels include daily or weekly meetings, suggestion boxes, and performance reviews.

Generate Data to Analyze Efficiency

Data can help you spot inefficient employees or specific tasks that are taking too long. When you have the data, you can make adjustments and measure the results. Consider adding more feature-rich warehouse management software that can automatically generate reports.

Speed Up Picking and Moving

Employees on the floor spend the bulk of their time in transit — finding, picking, and moving. To speed up these actions, you can rearrange inventory to prioritize different items. Better yet, add an industrial cart mover to facilitate picking and moving and prevent your workers from getting hurt or slowing down.

Fill Receiving with Experienced Workers

Lastly, pay the receiving position some respect and fill the job with warehouse veterans. Rookie receivers make mistakes that create chain reactions of inefficiencies. Senior employees make the best receivers.

Our motorized cart pushers and pullers like the CartCaddy5WP can make your warehouse run better.  Talk to a Sales Engineer at 1-800-686-2651 for more info and follow our blog for more warehouse management tips.

How to Hire Only the Very Best Matches for Your Business

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Hiring the Very Best

People with the right job skills for your warehouse may not already work in a warehouse. They might be office managers, bartenders, auto mechanics, community college students, or something else altogether.

Risk management expert David Leng has tips for sourcing better job applicants:

  • Ask HR and marketing to work together on job ads
  • Use an employee referral program
  • Promote from within as a motivator for everyone

How Do You Know Who to Hire?

Be thorough, track applicants throughout the process, and keep your eyes open:

Loyalty should be valued. Avoid workers who change jobs frequently. Give full consideration to workers with a disability or other hindrance to finding another job — as Leng says, they may actually miss work less and work harder.

Character matters when you need hard workers, self-starters, and team players. Conduct personality tests and other assessments.

Insight from current employees helps hiring managers to understand who will be a good fit for each position.

Get More Out of Existing Employees

The expense of hiring — HR, training, payroll — makes it very attractive to get more out of current employees. You can rely on overtime and even less-skilled temporary workers if you provide the right tools to maintain energy levels, morale, and job performance.

Industrial tugs that remove physical strain can let your best warehouse employees get more done, with fewer injuries and lost work time. It’s more cost-effective to outfit your workers with ergonomic tools like industrial tugs than to add additional employees to an injury-prone job involving manual labor.

For information about cart pushers, platform carts, and other kinds of motorized industrial tugs, visit DJProducts.com.