Having a clean, organised warehouse is what we all anyone wants. It looks neat, tidy and keeps everything together.
However a good warehouse layout is not just about tidiness and organisation. It can also improve your productivity. More productivity can improve your bottom line.
A productive warehouse begins with an effective layout. Your layout is dictated by the setup you choose to implement within your space.
A productive and efficient warehouse does the following:
It can be costly to expand your warehouse when you run out of floorspace. However most warehouses offer an abundance of vertical space. The right equipment can help you access this, whether you opt for extra floors in the form of a mezzanine, or a tall storage structure composed of pallet racking such as our Iron Fist. The use of reach trucks and lifts make high shelving easy and safe to access.
Maximising the footprint of your warehouse setup is a high priority for cost-cutting. This can be achieved by narrowing the spaces in between the aisles. Using a train base can eliminate space between aisles altogether while still allowing for easy access to products. For longer-term storage, the Iron Fist Drive In is designed to store products with no corridors between the units at all making the space ultra-efficient.
Optimising your picking path is essential for warehouse productivity. Since warehouse employees spend 60% of their day walking around, and it’s estimated that each step taken costs four cents, an efficient warehouse setup will reduce any unnecessary space and movement, meaning that products are picked and packed at a much quicker pace.
Objects that are popular and are picked often need to be closest to the packing station to keep time between picking journeys to a minimum. Be careful not to mix up SKUs as this can lead to inaccuracies and human error. It’s a good idea to keep products than often get bought together in the same area to reduce time intervals. At the same time, don’t put products near each other that can easily be confused – E.g. the same dress in two different sizes hung on the same rack.
The people who are working for you need to feel comfortable. Pains from walking around all day can reduce productivity. Soft flooring decreases instances of achy ankles. In addition, flexible mezzanine structures allow for the easy implementation of breakout areas so staff can take some time out and make a cup of tea without having to waste their precious rest time walking to and from another location.
Automated systems and inventory management software can make life so much easier for workers and management alike. From helping to optimise storage through space-centring technology to real-time stocking records instead of regular old spreadsheets, you can make better use of your warehouse organisation to keep productivity on the up.