“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Those are the words of Benjamin Franklin which remind us that improvement only comes from us making little steps towards growth and our goals. For you to have progress there has to be a way of measuring that you have moved a step away from where you were. In a warehouse, there is need to make improvements to ensure that you are up to the challenging market needs that are ever changing. As the market changes, so will you need to. How do you then make sure that you are competing favourably in the market? You need to have Key performance indicators for your warehouse.
Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators are the metrics that you use to measure progress in your warehouse. How effective is the receiving process? Are there any hitches in the fulfilment of orders? These are simply some of the things you need to track. For example, are we matching the market needs? If so, how much more can we do in the next few months to make the market even more satisfied? Are these processes efficient or should we make adjustments and improve the efficiency? Those are some of the questions that may help you in setting your key performance indicators.
Some Important Warehouse KPIs to measure
Each performance indicator should show you how well a process is working and whether it has improved compared to previous reports on the same.
- Inventory – Tracking of inventory that is in your warehouse is important to help you avoid stock outs or unsold inventory. You should have a good Warehouse management system to help keep a good balance for your warehouse.
- Receiving – This is to make sure that businesses get what they ordered for. So it means taking stock, processing and storing what you have received. Without putting in place a system to track these effectively, you will miss out on whether what you need is new processes or employee training because you will not be able to tell where to correct.
- Put Away – This refers to your ability to put away or store products that have been delivered in the most appropriate place in your warehouse. For example, are you able to keep perishable products? For how long?
- Picking – This will help you tell how accurately orders are being picked. This should help you in your order management system.
- Performance KPIs – These help to show you a record of your progress and losses.
- Safety KPIs – To reduce the amount of injuries at the workplace before they happen.
There are many other KPIs that can be considered for Warehouses. However, these six we find as the most important. Try to implement and tell us how they work for you.
