Tips for Improving Warehouse Efficiency & Productivity

From factory to customer’s doorstep or a shop, a product has to jump through many hoops to reach a customer’s hands. Most people assume that if a customer gets their products on time the organizations are efficient. However, no matter how efficient an organization is, there is still room for improvement to improve productivity and efficiency. Businesses are focusing more on that aspect. They are looking for ways to improve their warehouse efficiency. It has become a priority for warehouse managers across the globe. One of the reasons being when the efficiency increases the overall costs will reduce.  

A warehouse is where all the stock is stored. If you think a warehouse is just to store goods nothing could be done to improve the efficiency there, then you are highly wrong. A warehouse is not just about storing and delivering goods on time. 

If taken care of properly, you can save time and money whilst improving your organization’s productivity. It is high time to make different processes in warehousing automated so that they can enhance the monitoring of the flow of the goods or staff. The testament to an organization’s success is the efficiency in their warehouses. Irrespective of the size of warehouses, organizations need to plan to improve their warehouse efficiency.

Here are a few tips that will help you in improving the efficiency & productivity of your warehouse.

Warehouse Layout

If you want to improve the efficiency of your warehouse then improve the layout of your warehouse. Yes! The warehouse layout is highly important if you want to improve the efficiency of your warehouse. Although your warehouse is well-organized your team must work together to find the most efficient route that will make the loading and unloading stock faster. Always check the layout and utilize all the space available in the warehouse. 

For example, picking and dropping items determines the flow of the warehouse. If you want to improve the productivity of your employees then you must create a path for them. As they have to send the goods from one corner to another, having a predetermined path makes it easier to wrap up the delivery faster. Simply put, create and stick to those efficient routes and you will be saving a lot of time and effort.

Products tracking

Warehouses are huge and the point of them is to store the goods, naturally, they will be filled with items. Amongst this massive pile of goods can you easily locate an item? Without an efficient plan or system, the answer is no. If you choose to rely on an individual’s memory to locate the items you will be getting the shorter end of the deal. 

Always remember the longer one takes to locate an item the longer the delivery will get delayed. If you want to deliver your orders on time then you must rely on the latest tracking technologies such as RFiD technology. With this technology, you can track the product locations through quality control, manufacturing, warehousing, and dispatch. Automating the location search will reduce the delays in business processes, manual errors, and costs.

Conveyor Systems

Conveyor systems in a warehouse are a must as they reduce the human intervention to send the goods to the pickup trucks. As you see the warehouses are pretty big and carrying large cases can be brutal for your warehouse employees. A small slip or fall can result in the injury of your employee and damage the goods. The best way to reduce such damages is by using a sidewall conveyor belt system.

Based on the layout of your warehouse, you can get a conveyor system implemented. The current conveyor systems now come with intelligent software and automated storage & picking systems. There are many Intelligrated conveyor systems available in the market, choose the one that suits your warehouse needs. If you are looking for more information about Intelligrated conveyor systems you should contact SRSI.

Stop overstocking

Overstocking never does any good for organizations; instead, it will only increase the stocks. Whenever you overstock, you will end up with a lot of expired or unsold stock. The manufacturing and transportation expenses of those unsold and expired goods will be a wastage of resources to your organization, right? Time, effort, and money, everything is wasted because of one wrong move. This is the reason overstocking is a pet peeve for wholesale distributors. 

One way to put an end to this problem is to put the RFiD system in your warehouse. It uses the real-time location system, data collection, and automated identification to track your inventory automatically on a daily basis. Every pallet movement from pallet racking is recorded, so you will be able to know your stock-related issues immediately. With this system in place, you don’t have to worry about overstocking as it shows you the stock in real-time.

Train your team & utilize technology

To improve the efficiency of your workspace one important thing that you must not forget is to train your staff. Analyzing and finding the trigger points is not enough. Your team needs to be trained to tackle these issues. With proper training, they will be able to address the issues, reduce efficiency and improve efficiency. Also, businesses must rely on the latest technologies to improve warehouse efficiency. 

The automation of most of the aspects of warehouse and inventory management will reduce costs and time. The smarter the warehouse becomes the easier it becomes to find and solve the issues. Also if you want to utilize the technology to the maximum then you must train your staff on the usage of the latest technology introduced in the warehouse. So that they can solve the issues that arise in any area of the warehouse.

Wrapping up

Hope that these tips will help you in improving the efficiency and productivity of your warehouse. The more efficient your warehouse is the higher the customer satisfaction will be.    Managing your warehouse well will help you in reducing the problems that arise in your warehouse and make sure to make the warehouse operations smoother. Use the above-mentioned tips to improve the efficiency and productivity of your warehouse. Always remember when your warehouse becomes efficient along with reducing costs you can also improve customer satisfaction.