When running a materials handling business, maximising productivity and uptime is essential to ensuring success and growth. It’s quite common not to notice how much room there is for improvement, and it can be surprising to see the positive effects of making just a few simple changes. Luckily, maximising productivity and uptime can take shape in just three simple steps.
- Assess the situation
First of all, take a thorough look at operations within your organisation. Assess where time is being used effectively, and where there’s room for improvement. In an efficient workplace, employees should be able to spend their time on their prescribed work with minimal distraction, and things should run to schedule. For example, many businesses find too much time is spent dealing with difficulties around old, broken down equipment, rather than focussing on customers. Discuss this with your employees, and engage their feedback about where they see room for improvement.
Calculate where money is being spent, and where it could be saved. Investigate whether the money you’re spending on your equipment is reflected in the success of your product. Many companies spend too much money using machinery that has more capability than they actually need. This money could easily be reallocated elsewhere in the business, improving growth and productivity overall.
Draw up this information into a thorough report, so you can clearly see what’s working and what needs to be improved. From here, you’re in the best position to take action and make the best decisions moving forward.
- Set goals
After you’ve assessed your business, start to identify and develop ambitious yet realistic goals that will aid productivity and uptime. Work out what areas of your business need to be focussed on, and start from there.
For example, if you’re looking to save time and money, make a plan of where you want to be saving it from, and where you’d like it to go towards. Question why you think this will be beneficial, and to what extent. Work with your employees to create a plan and set a timeline – stick to it!
- Select the right machinery and reap the benefits
Low productivity within a materials handling business is often a result of having the incorrect machinery for your needs. Time and money can be saved and reallocated by speaking to an expert such as Linde Material Handling about the right equipment for your business. With the right technology, you can save extraordinary amounts of time, money and space.
From here, you’ll begin to see increases not only in uptime and productivity, but in the results of your business. Your employees will be able to focus their attention on their clients rather than worrying about equipment. Operations will run smoothly, leading to satisfied customers and company growth.