DCVelocity: The Top 12 Distribution Center Metrics

This month’s DCVelocity magazine featured its annual report on DC Metrics – a great tool for benchmarking your warehouse operations. The survey was issued to the magazine’s readers and members of WERC, by researchers from Georgia Southern University and a consulting firm partner.

1. On-time customer shipments
2. Order picking accuracy
3. Average warehouse capacity used
4. Dock-to-stock cycle time – hours
5. Internal order cycle time – hours
6. Total order cycle time
7. Peak warehouse capacity used
8. Lines picked or shipped per hour
9. Annual workforce turnover
10. Fill rate – line
11. Lines received and put away per hour
12. Percentage of supplier orders received damage-free

These are the most critical metrics, as ranked by the magazine’s readers. Visit DCVelocity or pick up the May 2012 issue for the full report. The magazine details the responses in each of these areas in order to give you a well rounded look at the results, what matters to your peers, and where you might rank if you’d taken it yourself.

Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Marketing Director with three decades of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. He writes on automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations.