Warehouse areas are often overlooked by many small businesses and are often treated as an afterthought, or worse, a dumping ground by many larger ones. However, considering the amount of square footage they tend to take up, the amount of product stored in them (and consequently the amounts of money tied up in that product) means that by overlooking this area, you are missing a trick as a business owner. This will be highlighted by the fact that just a few improvements in this much-neglected area can bear some very impressive financial fruit.
Efficient rack labeling
Unless the warehouse area is part of a major manufacturing unit, you will often find that where things are stored is often very badly regulated and disorganised. This can often be to the extent that you want to know where anything is, you normally have to ask a storeman – as in situations like this, computer records of where stock is located, and stock levels are notoriously poorly kept and out of date.
By having carefully labeled areas, often with letters for aisles and numbers for locations within their aisle, you can make things easier to find for everybody. This is especially true if similar products are kept in a single aisle, or regularly used products are then kept in the same locations all the time in between deliveries.
Storing recyclable waste
Storing waste – even if you have a compactor – can take up a huge amount of space in your warehouse. This can mean having people walking around trollies of packaging waiting to be disposed of, as well as warehouse staff having to rejig piles of waste that have accumulated awaiting collection.
By baling and stacking this waste using black annealed box wire, you will find that you can keep your waste in tidy piles. By using the right baling wire for the job, you’ll also find that tightly bound cardboard, paper, and plastic waste takes up considerably less space than trolleys piled high and generally getting in the way. This can free up space for storing stock instead or extending your despatch area, making getting your products to your customers on time a much easier process.
Easy pick racks
You could, of course, go one step further by having easy pick racks for your fast-moving items. This is useful for packing materials for the product that your company makes or kitting items for their construction or manufacture.
Rather than having a warehouseman or storeman having to get a forklift to get a palette of a fast-moving item down from the top of racking at the back of an aisle, having a ready supply (for instance, two to three days) worth of picking stock or storage on racking is a much better idea. If it can be kept within three or four strides of a packing or kitting bench, it will increase efficiency drastically – not only from a doubling handling point of view but also the amount of time people are spending fetching the items.
