Anybody who has a warehouse or at least a little storage room knows how important it is to keep it efficient and productive. The well-known saying says that time is money and there is not a single place within your company where you can lose so much time and so many things as you can in your warehouse. Therefore, it is important that you have it working like a Swiss clock and that everything there is in perfect order. There are ways to make the warehouse efficient and productive if you take extra good care about these factors and aspects of it. Here they are, all listed and elaborated for you to think about them and include them into your own warehouse life.
People
It is very important that you have the right people for the job in the warehouse. This means that you need to educate your leadership by talking to them, taking their advice and making the processes that go on in the warehouse far more efficient and productive. People who work there know about all the things that occur in the warehouse. They know where the time and the space are wasted and they usually have the solution to that problem but nowhere to come to with that solution. If you give them the chance and entice them to do so, they will be more than happy to tell you what can be improved. Make sure that they are inspired to suggest things to you. Naturally, nobody will show you how to eliminate their workplace in order to save more money or time in the process, so make sure that risk is eliminated for your workers.
Space
If anything, a warehouse is a space. Therefore, this space needs to be organized in the best possible way. First, you need to make sure that the qualities and the properties of the space are a good match for your merchandize. This means, you cannot really store something that needs to be stored in a cool and dry place in a warehouse near the river. Perhaps you can, but all the things needed to make that space suitable will cost you too much and definitely much more than just renting a more suitable warehouse. Another thing about the space is that it needs to be well organized. There are things in the warehouse that you use more and those that you use less. There are things that need to be reached with a forklift and those that don’t. Make sure that more frequently used things are in front of the warehouse so that you don’t have to reach for them in the back every time and make sure that the stuff that need to be reached and transported with forklift are all in the same row so that you don’t have to drive it through the narrow lanes as you will lose time in that way.
Organization
It is very important that your warehouse has a strict and well defined processes. You have to determine who does what and how. The input in your warehouse needs to be documented and you need to have a fast and easy way to do it. Don’t let the things that are put in the warehouse wait long before they are on your inventory. Also, nothing leaves the warehouse without being documented. In this way, you need to know what you have or don’t have inside it at all times. Also, you need to have quick access to the info where every little thing is. There are many programs and apps for this, QR readers and bar code readers and they can help a lot!
Machines
It pays off to invest in a new or a second hand forklift if you use it at least three hours a day. This is the machine that will be great for your business and for the morale of your employees that will have less sick days and more time to do other things once they don’t have to carry stuff around.
Organization if everything when it comes to productivity. That, combined with proper training and good software will give your warehouse the productivity that it needs to have.
