For a huge quantity of businesses, their warehouse is the heart of their operation. As your business grows and expands, and as time progresses, a warehouse that was once efficient can easily become disorganised.
This can result in cluttered spaces filled with obstacles and a lack of clarity around where items are stored – causing a drop in productivity, delays or issues with order fulfilment, and even endangering your warehouse health and safety. A poorly maintained warehouse can even lead to a decline in employee morale and motivation.
But getting your warehouse back to an organised and safe environment is easier than you might expect. There’s no need for a complete overhaul – with a few simple but effective changes you can improve your warehouse organisation. With that comes improvements to your overall productivity and efficiency, better order fulfilment and, ultimately, meeting your business goals more effectively.
1. Optimise your Floor Plan and Layout
The thought of reorganising a warehouse floor plan and layout can seem daunting. An entire overhaul can be a mammoth task that takes your warehouse out of action for months – fortunately, a change as large as this isn’t needed.
Your warehouse was likely initially set up in an organised and efficient way, but this has been slowly eroded over time. By realigning your warehouse back to this state, tweaking for efficiency, and ensuring that it stays this way, you can.
Smooth Movement Between Stations
The efficiency of your warehouse hinges on the ability for items to go from one station to the next quickly and with as little effort as possible. The order the stations are set up should match the flow of your warehouse operations – from Receiving to Storage or Storage to Shipping.
Review how goods currently move around your warehouse, and not how they move in your plan; review how they are moved around during operations to spot real inefficiencies. Then, amend how stations are organised or the paths between them, so it is as close to a straight line as possible. While you want stations to be close, they can’t be too close – allow enough space for safe movement when things get busy.
Make Every Bit of Space Count
Getting the most out of your warehouse means making use of every little bit of space available. If you have a congested flow then providing an allotted space to hold inventory between stations can prevent inefficiencies or obstructions.
Create a Floor Plan & Map
Creating a dedicated and distributable floor plan can recover and preserve the organisation originally set up. Your floor plan should provide a clear definition of how the warehouse should be set up in its ideal state. Distribute this floor plan to key employees and around the warehouse as a map. Employees will recognise this and manage the space in accordance with the plan, keeping it organised in the way you’ve established.
2. Improve Inventory Management and Labelling
Your stock and inventory may be causing more issues than you know. Unclear storage and racking can have pickers and warehouse managers going back and forth in search of the right items to pick or put away – causing heaps of problems and wasting lots of time. Getting your inventory management right can fix this.
Add Labelling and Signage
Neat warehouse organisation will not remain neat if it’s not labelled correctly and there’s no guiding signage for your staff. Get methodical with labels and signage. Each piece of inventory should have a label classifying clearly what it is, and each individual rack should have signage as to what is stored in it. On the end of each row there should be a clear list of which racks hold which inventory. Labels need to be big and clear – with readable fonts and useful graphics.
Implement a Warehouse Management System
A warehouse management system is essential for organising modern warehouses. Adding one into your operation can help improve overall efficiency by taking the burden away from keeping a paper inventory, as well as provide data-led insights for better classification, monitoring, forecasting and improved picking routes and accuracy.
Cross-Train Warehouse Staff
Employees in a warehouse environment will often help others on jobs or be pulled in to help with tasks that are outside of their remit and they may get involved without the correct training, leading to organisational issues. If possible, cross-train all warehouse or warehouse-related employees on organisation principles and plans.
3. Add More Vertical Storage and the Capability to Use It
If you’re suffering organisational issues due to cluttered or over-used storage racks, then adding more space can help. Expanding horizontally is often targeted when looking for more warehouse space. But, as long as your ceiling can accommodate it, you always have the opportunity to expand vertically.
Expand Upwards
By adding more shelves to your storage racks, you’ll be adding to the functional storage you have without impeding on your existing warehouse layout. This can reduce clutter and improve your space management – even allowing you to reorder your shelves for more efficient storage layouts if needed.
Ensure Safety with the Right Equipment
Don’t expand up without the right equipment for it. As adding vertical space is carries a greater risk of workplace hazards, you’ll need suitable handling equipment to utilise the new shelves. Modern order pickers and pallet stackers are capable of reaching high shelves in a safe manner. These should be combined with other safety measures, such as suitable visibility for the new shelves and appropriate signage and safety gear.
4. Clean the Workspace – and Keep it Clean
An unclean warehouse is often a disorganised one. Waste could be obstructing efficient movement, blocking signage, or simply lowering morale so that staff are not as effective in their work. Being organised also means being clean.
Perform a Deep Clean and Remove Hazards
At a convenient time, perform a comprehensive deep clean of your warehouse environment. Get rid of all waste, clean surfaces and racks so that signage can be read easily and stock can be easily identified, and all aisles and paths are free from any obstructions.
Train Employees on Cleaning
Once you have a clean warehouse environment, you need to keep it that way. Provide specific training for employees on keeping the warehouse clean, including regular cleaning and maintenance on equipment they are responsible for, keeping aisles clear, and providing cleaning checklists for employees to follow. This will ensure your warehouse stays clean and morale stays healthy.
5. Upgrade Your Handling Equipment
Finally, good warehouse organisation isn’t possible without the tools to organise it in the first place. Review your current handling equipment – is it capable of performing the job you need? Is it breaking down regularly? Or are there simply not enough for your needs?
Investing in additional handling equipment can help you improve your operation and organisation, as well as improving the safety of your workplace. SHS are members of RoSPA, a leading voice in health and safety that campaigns to reduce avoidable accidents at home, on the road, at work and at leisure as well as through education and training.
From pallet trucks and electric pallet trucks to warehouse pickers and even our dedicated CAGEMOVER for safer roll cage movement, we have an array of handling equipment developed to keep your warehouse safe, organised and efficient. Take a look at our guide to making the most of your warehouse space with pallet trucks and stackers.