“First day back at the office and it looks like a bomb has gone off on the shop floor.

Packages were strewn all around; shrink wrapping was trailing everywhere and the staff were just standing around. Two of my supervisors were busy yelling at each other. What a scene to return to after a holiday.” That was the scenario a client painted for me the other day and asked for my advice.

After listening to his supervisors moan about not having space for the new SKUs, he decided that the facility needed more space. Having seen this before, I cautioned him against doing that, yet the cause of his problems boiled down to poor warehouse optimisation.

Most warehouses get ‘built’ on the fly, as the business expands, therefore they quickly find themselves cramped and cluttered. The first thing a manager thinks of is adding more racking or a mezzanine. But no. That’s the last thing that facility needs.

Attempting to squeeze in another two miles of long span racking isn’t the ideal solution. Yet to keep up with demand and supply, there’s a need for more space. At this point, some warehouse rearranging is required.

With years of supplying warehouse storage solutions, we’ve narrowed down the most common optimisation problems.

In this article, we’ll discuss the five most common ones that can be tackled with no upfront cash.

If you can take a good look at your operation and implement these tweaks, you’ll find that your operation starts running more efficiently.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING.

In many cases, the cause of chaos in the warehouse are employees. While the permanent staff get trained and are held accountable for their actions, many warehouses also use temp staff. At most, they get a cursory induction before they are sent on the shop floor.

Taking the time to train them is seen as a waste of time by supervisors who are keen to meet targets, but therein lies the problem. Operations with poorly trained staff suffer lower quality of work, higher number of safety issues, more stressed supervisors and a general lack of control. The knock-on effect of no training is evident in scenes like that described by the client above.

THE RIGHT TOOLS.

If employees are given the tools they need to d their jobs, they have little reason to wander round the warehouse chatting. An organised warehouse has all the tools required stored in one central location.

Over time, some will get missing or destroyed, but to remain efficient and eliminate downtime; there must be spares available. Having replacements on hand, reduces the risk of potential counting errors or injury from ‘lack of PPE’.

LOW COST EQUIPMENT.

If the business really requires any additional tools, the managers are advised to look at purchasing refurbished tools.

Shelling out for a new piece of equipment that will be obsolete in a few years doesn’t make financial sense for a young company. Every piece of equipment can be bought used, at low cost, from various suppliers. We supply used and refurbished storage solutions; racking, shelving, storage bins, work benches are all available in our warehouse.

Buyers are encouraged to closely examine any equipment they are buying used, while also ensuring there is a warranty attached.

EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE.

Maintenance is both a productivity and safety issue. Poorly maintained equipment will break down more frequently, leading to downtime most businesses can’t afford. These tools are also often abandoned in corners of the building, where they constitute trip and fire hazards.

If employees are trained to report damaged or broken equipment, there would be far less clutter in distribution centres. One example of this is racking damage. Over time, all racking gets bumped, but because most people don’t report the incident; it goes unnoticed. That is, until the day the entire structure comes crashing down.

PROPER HOUSE KEEPING.

Poor housekeeping practices lead to debris accumulating in corners of the warehouse. A totally spotless warehouse floor is an unrealistic expectation, but the basics must be done daily.

With employees trained to pick up their stripped shrink-wrap after themselves and dedicated sweeping teams making the rounds at least once a day, clutter can be reduced. Less clutter means more space available for storage of goods.

These five tips may seem humdrum, but they are the most overlooked elements in warehouse optimisation. After these are implemented and the standards raised, then you can talk about buying more shelving to create even more space. If you have done all this and are ready to buy your refurbished racking now, call Monarch Shelving today.