How To Boost Your Warehouse Efficiency By 50 Percent Or More
Modern companies are becoming increasingly reliant on warehouse efficiency to secure their operations. Companies in multiple sectors - including online retails - need to marshal their resources in these spaces and develop streamlined solutions.
Use Enabling Technology
Over the last ten years, software developers have created a set of warehouse management programs and apps that make operations smoother. These systems provide suggestions on the best routes for picking up or depositing products, select automated picking routes, and reduce your dependency on paperwork.
Programs also come with additional helpful features such as showing you how to reduce waste or eliminate mistakes. This way, you can cut down on clutter and avoid irritating customers.
Create Marked Bays
As brands like Jointline point out, creating marked bays is one of the most powerful methods for improvising organization in your warehouse and increasing worker productivity. Robust floor markings are a simple and affordable method to ensure that you’re using the best use of space and that your forklift drivers operate safely.
Improve Workstation Organization
Take a look at the state of your workstations. How do they look? Are workers able to grab all the accessories they need from a standing position? Or do they need to make frequent trips away from their stations to get what they need?
If it’s the latter, then it could be a sign that you need to improve your workstation organization.
The best workstations sort, and set in order all the tools that workers need to work as rapidly as possible. They include techniques for reducing errors and keeping clutter to a minimum, including shredders, integrated bins, tape machines, and more.
Create Better Picking Plans
Your warehouse management system should automatically generate the most efficient picking plans for your staff. If it doesn’t, then nothing is stopping you from organizing them yourself.
Take a look at your current material plans and travel times and compare them to the industry average and leaders. If there’s a substantial difference, then think about whether you’re organizing products logically. Putting similar products next to each other, for instance, is a good start. Pickers can select complementary products rapidly. You can also keep the most commonly-picked items near picking stations, and then store others higher up or further away.
Keep Your Inventory Lean
If you’re not keeping your inventory lean yet, you should be. Having more products than you need to serve your customers’ needs increases your storage costs and makes the task of operating a warehouse more challenging. Pickers have to spend longer wading through goods to find the items they need.
Where possible, reduce your safety stocks and get your suppliers to deliver to you in smaller, more frequent quantities. Calculate the cost-benefit of changing your setup. Sometimes lower-volume deliveries can yield higher efficiencies elsewhere that wind up saving you money.
Use All The Space You Have
Don’t rent out additional space until you need it. Ensure that you’re using all horizontal and vertical space in your facility. Avoid expansion costs where you can.
Post a Comment