No matter how hard you’re trying to put your business on a firm foundation, the entire effort can be in vain if you neglect your inventory storage units, such as the warehouse and any other additional storage features. Those storage spaces need to be organized in line with some simple rules. The way you organize those units will play a major role in achieving and retaining high productivity.
Mess-less Passages and Green Forklifts
The ground is literally the base of every business. Hence, the cleaner the warehouse floor, the better the warehouse efficiency. While the floor needs to be regularly cleaned to maintain the space in accordance with strict hygienic standards, it’s also important to keep the clutter away from all the passages in the warehouse. When your forklifts and warehouse workers can quickly approach every single rack and shelf, your work efficiency won’t stall for a second.
As for the forklifts, avoid those diesel-powered engines and use gas or electric vehicles. They are more efficient and less harmful for the environment and employees. Still, get informed on hazards in gas-powered models, too, and take special care of the security measures.
Accurate Labeling
Since now you can approach all your stored goods in a free and fast way, you shouldn’t waste time on warehouse searches. If your items are arranged randomly, you’ll lose some precious time and your forklift will waste energy, too. Since you want to avoid all those problems, the key step is introducing a proper box-labeling system. It will depend on your personal preferences, as well as the budget restrictions.
For instance, the simplest way for functional warehouse organization is arranging items in the alphabetical order. That way your employees won’t need assistance from any software tools. (You might only hang an alphabet poster somewhere on one of the walls.) On the other hand, those well-off warehouse owners can go one step further and introduce a barcode labeling system to their warehouse, automating the entire process.
Proper Numbering
Even if you’ve applied the aforementioned labeling techniques, your warehouse will still be in a mess unless you add proper numbering to your organizational features. Therefore, every single item your employees receive in the warehouse has to get a number. This part is extremely important, so as to ensure you always have updated information on the number of certain products. The amount of goods you have in your warehouse will influence the pace at which you obtain your supplies, affecting your financial liquidity, too.
Alternatively or additionally, pictures can also be used for this purpose. When your workers find the product they’re looking for, they won’t have to open the boxes to find the right item if there’s a picture on it. Of course, if you can afford the aforementioned bar-coding, there’s no need for those old-school techniques.
Storage-way to Heaven
Unless you have to store some fragile and easily damaged items, opting for a vertically organized warehouse is a more practical solution for several reasons. Firstly, you’ll save a substantial amount of horizontal space.
Secondly, you can add contemporary industrial pallet racks in case your warehouse storage needs increase. On the other hand, you can remove them once you’ve sold the new contingent of items. Finally, the procedure of finding and shipping the stored products will flow smoothly if they’re placed in a vertical order.
When you’ve equipped your warehouse with eco-friendly forklifts and vertical racks, every shipping order will be dealt with in a much faster tempo. Apart from that, if all the stored goods are properly labeled and numbered, your entire business will see higher revenue and improved efficiency, due to exceptional inventory storage organization.