Organising a warehouse has several benefits as it saves time, increases productivity, reduces theft, improves order accuracy and enhances safety. In this article, we will discuss 5 warehouse organisation benefits that you can implement to reap the benefits of an organised warehouse.
- Layout
This is the first step to organising a warehouse space. Analyse your floor plan and see if it’s designed in a way that ensures maximum productivity and efficient handling of material. An organised workspace should provide a safe environment for your employees. Try to set up the flow in the order of operations. Another way to organise the warehouse is to label the inventory and work zones throughout the warehouse. This will ensure that organisation and facility flow is maintained long term. Moreover, reviewing your storage space and making amends according to your storage needs is another way of making the warehouse more organised.
- Inventory
Inventory management is another important aspect of organising your warehouse. The first step is to compartmentalise your storage with appropriate storage devices such as totes, bins and drawers. Then, you should slot your inventory by velocity. This can be done when you’ve classified your inventory in categories such as fast-moving, medium-moving and slow-moving products. Slot your fast and medium movers in the area with the easiest access. The slow and very slow movers should be further away from the shipping area.
- Receiving
After organising the layout and inventory, you want to make your receiving process easy. Optimise the receiving space by using the proper tools and providing enough space to enable your employees to sort and store incoming inventory. Another important thing is to keep the receiving space clean and organised by removing clutter and putting the tools away after using them. This enables fast and efficient order receiving. Furthermore, it is important to use the appropriate material handling devices to unload received inventory safely and effectively.
- Picking
Order picking is a labour-intensive and error-prone process in your warehouse. But the accuracy of order picking directly impacts customer satisfaction. Thus, as part of organising your warehouse, the picking process needs to be streamlined in order to make it faster. Try to reduce the travel time between picking locations and position bins for faster access. The fast-moving items should be placed as close to the packing area as possible. Moreover, installing systems such as bar code scanning, RF readers and pick-to-light systems can further expedite the process.
- Regular Maintenance
Regular maintenance of your warehouse as well as the equipment is important to keep your warehouse organised. Maintaining an organised warehouse consists of various things such as cleaning the workspace, sweeping the floors and picking physical obstacles off the floor. Cleaning the warehouse regularly gives a strong sense of organisation, which also leads to higher job satisfaction among employees. Having a regular maintenance schedule for your machinery and material handling equipment is equally important. This ensures safe and efficient operation in the warehouse.
Organising your warehouse brings about a sense of structure and order, resulting in a more efficiently run warehouse. Use these tips to organise your warehouse better and strive for a more efficient work space.