The Principles of Lean in Your Cold Vault
February 9, 2018
The Principles of Lean in Your Cold Vault
The Principles of Lean in Your Cold Vault. Industries all across the world have used the assembly line methodology of Lean production, or simply Lean, to improve overall business and their bottom line. In any business, the greatest enemy of profitability is waste. Typically this waste takes form in time or money. Lean feeds off the idea of reducing waste to maximize value. So what is waste? Waste is defined as anything that does not have perceived value by the customer. When implemented correctly Lean prevents waste from happening. Below are some benefits of implementing the basic principles of Lean in your cold vault.
Improved Visual Management
When done correctly, your cold vault will be set up so you can evaluate an entire area with a visual scan. This creates the ability to better assess inventory and make more informed decisions on future vendor orders.
Increased Restocking Efficiency
All products will be placed so that the least amount of time and movement is needed to restock a item. This leads to increased efficiencies that can be repeated.
Manpower Reductions
One of the major benefits of Lean is getting more done in less time with less people. The idea of Lean would have any freed up time dedicated to perform activity’s that bring value to the customer, such as interaction.
Maximized Storage Space
As part of the waste reduction process, space will be created. This will save space vertically in your racking as well as horizontally across your floor. This creates more room in your cold vault.
Safer Work Environment
An organized work environment is a safe work environment.
Improved Employee Morale
Employee’s will spend less time restocking in the very chilly and windy cold vault and will spend more time interacting with customers. This will create happier employee’s and even happier customers.
Implement the principles of Lean using PFI’s Stockmaster and Stockmaster IMC Cart.
The Stockmaster transfers labor from store management to distributors, saving approximately 4 hours of labor per week. The Stockmaster has the ability to safely organize full and partial cases allowing for complete cooler inventory to be taken in 30 minutes or less. The front mobile section manages broken and partial cases for easy access to load glides for consumer sales. This minimizes the overall movement and lifting of cases because of the ability to stock shelves directly from the mobile cart section thus resulting in fewer work related injuries, a 1 hour reduction in restock time per shift, and the potential for retailers to reduce insurance premiums. All this can mean a larger bottom line!
The Stockmaster IMC cart supports the role of the Stockmaster by taking advantage of additional backroom storage and creating a mobile solution to restocking. The Stockmaster IMC cart holds 390 20oz bottles or 160 2L bottles per unit. The Stockmaster IMC cart puts large amounts of single serve products at arms length away of an employee. In addition, the IMC cart’s mobility allows it to move throughout the cold vault and sales floor reducing the time it takes to restock many items at once.
PFI’s capabilities paired with the principles of Lean will maximize the success of your cold vault and store overall.
