When it comes down to it, warehouse organization is critical for the sake of efficiency and productivity. Out of all the sectors of your business, your warehouse and shipping center is by far the most important. It is here that your products must be properly packaged and shipped to get to customers and other accounts on time. If products are late, or if the shipping process is slow, you could start to see an impact on your business’ bottom line. This is exactly why you want to take various measures to improve efficiency through better organization and other methods. Here are five ways to improve warehouse efficiency.
- Update all of your machinery – you need new pickers and other instruments to get products from the shelves to the trucks in as little time as possible. If your employees are still taking boxes down from shelves, it will be important to visit Heubel Material Handling, Inc. to purchase new machinery. Having automated machinery handle your inventory instead of your warehouse workers will greatly boost productivity and efficiency.
- Automate your systems to allow for better processing of SKUs – the manual way of doing things is the old way of doing things. Are your SKUs in a central database? Do you have a scanner that checks off products when they have gone to the trucks? If you don’t have an automated system in place, it is definitely time to update. When it comes down to it, there are many systems and platforms that will help automate your SKUs.
- Retrain your employees for new picking methods and make sure that protocols are in place. If your employees aren’t properly trained in the warehouse, you will undoubtedly have decreased productivity and efficiency. This is why you want to get serious about having your managers retrain and possibly rehire for various positions. When it comes down to it, the human resources in your warehouse will be essential to the efficiency of the shipping and warehousing process. On top of retraining, you may also want to develop new protocols.
- Reorganize your inventory so that the most important items are in the front and the archived items are in the back. The rule of thumb is always: slow moving products in the back and fast moving products in the front. If you have slow moving items in the front, your employees will keep having to head to the back of the warehouse to pull products and inventory, which will really slow things down. Moreover, it could create a risk for more injuries on the warehouse floor.
- Offer incentives to employees for better productivity and more efficiency. On top of everything, you may also want to offer incentives to employees that perform better. Everyone likes to work towards something. If there are bonuses in order, you may be able to increase productivity. With everyone working harder, your warehouse will be much more efficient. Before you offer incentives, you may want to speak with your human resources team to make sure you develop the right incentive program. In the end, incentives are one of the best ways to motivate people.
Average Rating