Warehouse Operations Audit
Scope
Our Warehouse Operations Audit service provides a comprehensive evaluation of your warehouse or distribution center, identifying opportunities for operational improvements, cost reductions, and efficiency gains. Each assessment is customized to your specific needs and can include the following key areas:
Benchmarking Against Industry Best Practices: Comparison of warehouse and fulfillment processes against Best Practices to identify areas for improvement within the operation.
Warehouse Layout and Process Evaluation: In-depth assessment of the facility design, material flow, picking strategies, and overall operation.
Warehouse Slotting Strategy Review: Evaluation of the current inventory placement and slotting methodologies.
Warehouse Productivity and Efficiency Analysis: Review of workforce utilization, order fulfillment speed, and process cycle times to identify performance gaps.
System Support and Technology Assessment: Evaluation of the current warehouse system support, automation, and other technologies currently in place.
Industry-Specific Warehouse Audit: Audit of warehouse processes for specific industries including apparel operations, automative & parts operations, building material operations, consumer goods operations, food operations, industrial equipment operations, medical equipment operations, pharmaceutical operations, and more.
Channel-Specific Warehouse Audit: Audit of warehouse processes for specific channels, including e-commerce fulfillment operations, business-to-business (B2B) wholesale and retail fulfillment operations, omnichannel fulfillment operations, finished goods warehouse design, raw materials warehouse design, and more.
Warehouse Cost Reduction Strategies: Identification of opportunities to lower warehouse operating costs through better resource allocation, labor management, and inventory control.
KPI and Metrics Development: Assessment and refinement of key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure accurate measurement of warehouse performance.
3PL Cost Auditing and Benchmarking: Evaluation of third-party logistics (3PL) expenses to identify cost-inefficiencies and service gaps.
Process Cycle Time Evaluation: Measurement and analysis of current process durations to understand which processes can be streamlined and improved.
Value Stream and Process Mapping: Detailed visualizations of existing warehouse workflows to identify bottlenecks.
Objectives
The objective for our warehouse consultants is to conduct a warehouse audit and assess the existing warehouse / distribution operation and create an action plan for how to improve and/or reach a best-in-class operation.
Deliverables
Every project is different, but the typical deliverables for our Warehouse Operations Audit are:
1. Best Practices Audit
An audit of your current processes and system support vs. Establish’s Logistics Best Practices.
2. Warehouse Layout & Equipment Audit
An audit of your current warehouse layout configuration to determine if the layout and/or equipment fits your operational profile.
3. Process Mapping & Flow Documentation
Detailed visualizations of existing warehouse workflows to identify bottlenecks to support the development of optimized processes.
4. Quantitative Report
A quantitative report detailing the operational profile of your warehouse operation, warehouse productivities and operational baseline.
5. Warehouse Savings Opportunities
Identification of opportunities for cost reductions within the warehouse operation.
6. Action Plan for an Improved Operation
A hands-on action plan based on solid analysis that will improve your warehouse operation. Applying the crawl, walk, run approach, breaking down strategic goals and objectives into manageable steps.
Methodology
Project Kickoff: Learn business requirements and scope of improvements.
Gather & Analyze Data: Collect and analyze all required data pertaining to the warehouse operation, both qualitative and quantitative. Compile findings into a quantitative report.
Evaluate the Operation: Identify and review the warehouse processes, operating procedures, and what the bottlenecks are. Evaluation is conducted on site in close cooperation with the operators performing the tasks.
Warehouse Best Practices Audit: Compare and evaluate current processes and procedures with Establish’s Logistics Best Practices and identify the gaps.
Benchmark Costs & Productivity: Benchmark 3PL rates (if applicable) and/or assess warehouse costs to determine monetary opportunity.
Identify & Quantify Improvements: Identify opportunities for savings, cost reductions, and service improvements to the customer within the warehouse operation.
Create Action Plan: Create a detailed action plan for the improvement areas. Apply the crawl, walk, run approach, breaking down strategic goals and objectives into manageable steps.
Why Establish?
Experience
With over 50 years of experience, we have developed our own proprietary Logistics Best Practices assessment and supply chain analytics tools and have designed and improved over 1,000 operations in almost every industry. Our warehouse design consultants bring expertise to every project to ensure the solution is optimized and meets your business requirements. Please visit our client page to view all our happy customers (https://www.establishinc.com/clients).
Independent and Unbiased
We sell no other products besides our services. This allows our consultants to develop completely unbiased recommendations that are independent of any specific supplier or vendor and are customized and specifically designed for your needs.
Detailed Approach
We are an engineering-based management consulting firm with full-time, highly experienced warehouse consultants trained in Lean techniques. Our approach is methodical and is supported by both industry leading and proprietary tools, including AutoCAD, Establish’s Logistics Best Practices, and Assign, which is our own proprietary software for data cleansing and profiling, allowing us to capture critical logistics insights to support the audit and evaluation of your operation.
TOOLS & METHODS
Within warehousing, we are using state of the art tools and methods. Below you will find some of the more important tools.
Establish’s Logistics Best Practices™
Logistics and warehouse operations benchmarking tool
Assign™
Logistics data cleansing, profiling and network optimization software
AutoCAD
Computer-aided design software
Logivations
Warehouse simulation software
RELEX Solutions
Supply chain planning software
CASE STUDIES
Establish has a long track-record within warehouse design and improvements. The case studies below are just a few examples of achievements from Establish's supply chain consultants together with clients within warehouse design and improvements.
Third party logistics (3PL): Search and Selection
Establish helped a multinational animal healthcare provider consolidate its distribution operations with the search and selection of the ideal 3PL.