If your work in or manage a warehouse, you’re likely to be on a constant look out for new ways to make your space work harder and smarter so everyone you work with can be more productive.
Here at Safe Industrial, warehouse management and efficiency is something we know a lot about so we want to share with you 10 ways you can make your warehouse more productive today.
1. Swap bulky bins for hanging waste collection
Organising inventory can create a lot of waste in the warehouse environment. So to make sure you’re not wasting valuable warehouse space with bulky bins, try using racksack®. These light weight sakes can be easily hung on your warehouse racking and can take up to 160L of waste.
You can even even choose from a range of designs which stipulate what waste products go in which racksack®. Keeping your waste and recycling organised and your warehouse floor clear.
2. Make signs and labels highly visible
Signs and labels play and important role in maintaining the flow of a warehouse as well as increasing health and safety awareness, so it’s vital they are easy to see and understand. Plus, all important warnings and notices should be highly visible to meet HSE standards and regulations. Labelling your racking is also an effective means of identification and can improve warehouse logistics.
3. Introduce a racking or shelving
If you want to optimise your warehouse space, ensure it remains tidy, efficient and safe, you need to consider introducing a streamlined racking and shelving system. This will make sure all of goods are organised, off the floor and stacked safely with no danger of breakages. There are lots of types of warehouse racking and shelving options available, so it’s worth doing some research to find out what will work best for you.
4. Create dedicated areas
You can use simple floor markers and tape to mark out specific areas in your warehouse to make it more structured. You can make it clear where staff members can go to take breaks, complete paperwork, or hold a meeting. Plus mark out areas that need to be kept clear. Creating dedicated areas in your warehouse will ensure work is carried out in an organised and structures manor.
5. Regular cleaning
Maintaining a regular cleaning routine will help keep your warehouse running smoothly and efficiently. Keeping a clean warehouse will ensure everything is in its place and that stock, merchandise, tools and machinery are kept in good condition. It’s good practice to encourage all workers to tidy their workspace at the end of each day or week, so you’re ready to a start a fresh in the morning. Modulean® Shadow Boards are a great way to organise cleaning products so they are easy to access.
6. Have a First Aid Kit to hand
Working with heavy machinery and sharp tools on a daily bases, means injuries can be common in a warehouse environment. So you need to have an appropriate First Aid kit visible and easily accessible in one or more places the warehouse. This will ensure any situations can be dealt with quickly and efficiently by your trained first aider or whoever is closest to the scene.
7. Introduce job rotation
Working on the same task in a warehouse environment can become tedious and boring over time. So to keep your staff happy and productive rotate their working day so they can experience other areas of the warehouse, where possible of course. Keeping staff well trained in all warehouse duties also helps keep the job more interesting and also covers you went team members are on leave or off sick.
8. Stock control
Being able to see your stock levels clearly is vital to maintaining an accurate record of quantities and ensures precise monitoring so you can stay on top of your inventory. In addition to a computer system, stock identification and markers can be applied to shelving or racking to make sure everyone can see stock levels clearly and can respond where necessary if levels get low.
9. Stay on top of old stock
Old stock items can be easily forgotten and left on the top shelves to gather dust. But it’s important to remember that those forgotten or unwanted items are taking up valuable space, space which can be used for something more profitable. So, you have to be brutal here and get rid of your old stock.
You could sell items in bulk, on an auction site or simply give them away to someone who can make good use of them. But it needs to be dealt with because it will continue to decrease in value and reduce the efficiency of your warehouse.
10. Keep communicating
This is an obvious one, but I think it’s the most important. The productivity of your warehouse is down to your team, so you need to talk to them, share ideas and find out what’s going on with them. You can set up weekly or monthly meetings where you discus how things are going and ask them for any ideas or suggestions that might help make their job easier.
Your warehouse staff will know the routine like the back of their hand, so make the most of their experience and use it to make sure that your warehouse is the best and most productive place to be.