You need to keep the pace moving in your warehouse or distribution center if you want your customers to be satisfied. These tips will help you keep the pace up and improve warehouse and distribution center efficiencies.
Highlights:
- In order to remain competitive in the global distribution chain, speed has become the key.
- When organizing your warehouse, keep in mind your top priorities. This includes your most popular products.
- With employees scanning every product, digital technology can eliminate the guesswork from inventory management and warehouse management.
When you work in a distribution center or warehouse, things can be done faster. has to be fast in order to stay competitive on the global supply chain. Amazon and Walmart, among others, have distribution centers around the globe that produce packages with lightning speed.
You need to keep the warehouse or distribution centre moving if you want your customers to be satisfied. These tips will help you keep your warehouse or Warehousing and Distribution Service moving and as efficient as possible.
1. Organize Your Warehouse
A poorly organized warehouse can stymie operational efficiency. It is important that the floor plan of your facility be well-thought out so that employees can easily navigate it. Your employees should have enough space to access packages and products without stepping on each other. It is possible that your employees will need to work on different orders at the same time. They should have enough space to not step on each other. Warehouses today are larger than in the past. This allows for greater efficiency and speed.
The items should be clearly labelled on the shelves and organized according to your needs. You can organize packages by destination, contents or origin. The layout should be intuitive to your staff, so that they can find what they need without looking at a spreadsheet.
2. Prioritize Products That Move Quickly
When organizing your warehouse, keep your priorities in mind. Your chosen layout should be geared towards your most popular products. Bestsellers tend not to stay on the shelves for long. Make sure that your employees have easy access to them at any time. It’s not fair to make your employees go to the back to get a product especially if it is one of the most popular ones. These products that sell quickly can be moved to the front of your store, saving everyone time. Keep them low to the floor and near the loading dock.
The layout of your warehouse should be designed to move the best-performing products up front and the least popular ones at the back. Rate your products according to how frequently your employees will need them. You should use this information to guide your decisions when you redesign your facility.
3. Automate Data Collection
Data is the key to running a warehouse today. With digital technology, employees can scan products at every stage of the warehouse and inventory management process. You should gather as much information as possible about your products, such as where they come from, how they arrived, in what condition they were, and where they will be going. This data can be used to track the location of products. You’ll always know how many products you have in your warehouse.
To improve efficiency you should automate as much of the data collection as possible. As your staff unloads and scans items that just arrived, they should be able to automatically retrieve the data. This process can be simplified by using handheld scanners or radio frequency identification tags. Automating data collection reduces errors such as inaccurate data entry.
The warehouse automation industry is worth $1.9 billion and will grow to $22 billion by 2021 . Automation is a good investment if you want to remain competitive. All the information you require will be at your fingertips, without adding additional steps to your operation.
4. Inventory Management Software
You can save time if you send the data you gather about shipping containers, products and their movements into and out of your company to your inventory management software. This technology allows you to make sense of the data within seconds. You can see quickly how many products you have on your shelves, when shipments must be sent out, and when new shipments will arrive. Your data collection devices and software programs will be synced, so you don’t need to enter the information twice.
Some artificially intelligent software can help you predict future outcomes, such as inventory shortages and delivery delays. The software keeps a record of all the operations of your facility to better predict the future.
5. Cross Docking Can Save You Time
Cross docking is a great way to save time when you have products that are moving quickly. You can save time by directing your employees to a temporary staging zone for scanning and inventory. This temporary staging area must be near the loading dock. Your employees will be able to quickly grab the items when they are ready to move on.
6. Improve Visibility By Improving Lighting
It’s not always as difficult as it appears to be. It’s not always necessary to upgrade your lighting. Lighting a warehouse, with all its shelves and high ceilings can be difficult. To speed up warehouse operations, all employees should be able see clearly. Staff should be able read labels and open containers without squinting. Keep the lights on to keep your staff awake. This is especially important if you’re preparing a shipment in the middle night.
Warehouse Efficiency Is Key
The right layout is the first step to making your warehouse more efficient. You should organize your products according to their popularity. As soon as your products enter the facility, you should collect data automatically. Always ensure that your employees have the space and lighting they need to perform their duties. These above steps will help you get your orders out in record time.
