• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Four Steps to Align Qualitative and Quantitative Metrics in the Warehouse

Four Steps to Align Qualitative and Quantitative Metrics in the Warehouse

April 5, 2017
SupplyChainBrain

How do Best-in-Class warehousing and distribution facilities achieve quality and continually improve upon it? They tirelessly, and repeatedly, follow a four-step path to successful benchmarking. Major Opportunity facilities — and everyone in between — can learn a lot from both their metrics and the processes that yield those results. The steps include:

Step 1: Plan

Set benchmarking priorities that align with corporate’s values and future vision. Then, identify the key processes that make the largest positive impact on the firm and its customers.

Step 2: Measure

Collect the data from front-line operational workers and the managerial level. While not every metric matters to every warehouse, the five most popular metrics tracked by survey respondents are: on-time shipments; average warehouse capacity used; order picking accuracy (percent by order); dock-to-stock cycle time (in hours); and internal order cycle time (in hours).

Step 3: Compare

Research what Best-in-Class operations have done, process-wise, as a guideline to achieve similar performance results. Identify gaps and determine why they exist. Although doing so might seem overwhelming, recommendations from resources such as WERC’s recently updated Warehousing and Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide can be helpful.

The Best Practices Guide provides a list of key qualitative benchmarks parsing them into eight separate chapters — one for each primary functional area within a warehouse: receiving & inspection; material handling & putaway; slotting; storage & inventory control; picking & packing; load consolidation & shipping; shipment documentation; and warehouse management system.

The publication guides the evaluation of internal practices against five sample process benchmarks (poor, inadequate, common, good and best). It also includes a self-assessment exercise and guidance in performing a quantitative benchmarking of a facility’s performance against the industry averages published in the most recent DC Measures Study.

Based on such a comparison, as well as a better understanding of how Best-in-Class operations conduct these tasks, it’s time to develop an improvement strategy based on the priorities identified in the planning phase (Step 1). Set both near- and long-term goals to measure and mark improvements.

Step 4: Act

Implement Best-in-Class practices to improve processes and close the gaps, focusing on metrics with the most value to an operation in terms of supporting the corporate mission, vision, values, and long-term goals. Assess yourself regularly against those targets and adjust accordingly. If near-term goals are being surpassed monthly, the bar was set too low. Then, after a year, circle back and repeat the four steps. Consider an independent, third-party review and assessment for an outsider’s impartial perspective on internal processes and their alignment to Best-in-Class facilities’ performance.

The Outlook

By 2020, the performance gap between the best and the rest won’t close without a conscious effort to improve the processes taking place within operations. Best-in-Class warehouses understand which processes have the greatest impact on corporate goals, and focus tirelessly on improvements in those areas.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Logistics Global Supply Chain Management Quality & Metrics All Warehouse Services
KEYWORDS All Warehouse Services Global Supply Chain Management Logistics Quality & Metrics Supply Chain Analysis & Consulting
  • Related Articles

    Align Shop Floor Metrics to Your Corporate Strategy

    Four Critical Steps to Managing Change in the Supply Chain

    In a Time of complexity, Go for Simplicity: Three Steps That Lead to the Supply Chain of the Future

  • Related Events

    Using Warehouse Automation to Create Happy Employees, Happy Executives and Happy Customers

SupplyChainBrain

100 Great Supply Chain Partners Issue 2009

More from this author

Wake up to Coronavirus Updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Coronavirus-watch-Armada

    Virus Update: J&J Looks for Partners to Boost Supply; Google Prepares for Remote Work Future

    Coronavirus
  • Mexico

    The Near-Shoring Trend: Will China’s Loss Be Mexico’s Gain?

    Logistics
  • Robotic automation

    Autonomous Supply Chains Are on the Horizon

    Coronavirus
  • Shipping Logjam

    U.S. Retailers See Millions in Sales Delays Amid Shipping Logjam

    Coronavirus
  • Amazon

    Podcast | Making It As an Amazon Seller: It’s No Picnic

    Logistics

Digital Edition

Scb feb 2021 lg

2021 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • Remote Implementation: A Dose of the Right Medicine for B2B Pharmacy

  • LSP Saves Customer $1.5 Million a Year With MPO Global Inbound Management

  • Auto Supplier Wows Key Client Using riskmethods Supply Chain Savvy

  • Integrating Shipping and Compliance Saves Conglomerate Millions

  • How a Consumer Goods Giant Upped Its On-Time Delivery Performance

Visit Our Sponsors

6 River Systems ArcBest Armada
aThingz BluJay Burris Logistics
DSC Logistics DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) DHL Resilience360
Genpact Geodis GEP
GreyOrange Honeywell Intelligrated Infor
Inmar Kibo Commerce Logility
Magnitude Software MPO Old Dominion
Oliver Wight OpenSky Paccurate
Ports America Purolator QAD Precision
Red Classic Riskmethods Snapfulfil
TGW Systems Transportation Insights Watson Land Company
Westfalia Technologies Workjam Yang Ming
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2021 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing