If your business runs a warehouse, then you already know that they can be quite costly affairs. They require teams to run them, training to keep those teams up to date with the needs of the job, not to mention machinery and digital technology costs. As such, you can’t afford to let waste, errors, and inefficiency run rampant. Here, we’re going to look at some of the most common causes of warehouse error, and what you can do to fix it.
Poor layouts
The bigger your warehouse, the more that you have to pay close attention to how you lay it out. Even well-organized warehouses with plenty of storage and shelving units can get pretty labyrinthine, so you want to keep the rows of shelves as uniform as possible and have larger thoroughfares that can be used to navigate big stretches of space. Effective warehouse signage can be vital for preventing people from getting turned around and lost, as well. If you make it so that they’re always able to see which way to go, they can learn the layout of the warehouse much more quickly.
Make sure that they can see
Of course, signage isn’t going to be great if they’re having trouble seeing where they’re going. Similarly. If the visibility of your shelving spaces is poor, it’s all too easy for things to get put in the wrong place. Accidents, including vehicle accidents, slips, trips and falls, and the like are all a lot more likely in places that are not well-lit. As such, investing in high-quality lighting, such as a led retrofit kit can be vital for your warehouse. Make sure that you have both large-scale lighting as well as more proximal lighting for places that require precision work.
Take care of your assets
Whether it’s PPE, the machinery you use to move stock, or even the shelves themselves, you should make sure that you invest in proper maintenance of your warehouse to keep it efficient. This means creating a list of tasks that you do, not just every month or every year, but the things that you have to keep up with every single day. When it comes to issues like messes and spills, your team should be trained to deal with them on the spot rather than let them remain a hazard.
Items disappearing
We’ve already highlighted how issues like poor visibility and layout can lead to items easily getting lost among the rows of your warehouse. However, there is also the threat of items being stolen which you have to be mindful of. Regardless of how it happens, you can prevent item loss by investing in inventory management systems. Equipping your team with scanners can allow you to log the last reported location of any given piece of stock, making it much less likely that things can simply slip through the cracks.
You can’t expect to reduce the costs of your warehouse to next to nothing, but you can make sure that you’re not simply throwing money away. Keep an eye out for your sources of errors and loss.
Join the conversation: