You might be surprised to learn that only 40% of small businesses are making a profit. Without an efficient system to move your products, you risk only breaking even — or worse. That’s why you need a better warehouse management system.
Stick around to learn about 5 warehousing management tips to boost production!
- Pay Attention to Warehousing Design
Your shipping and receiving manager will have a much easier time navigating a logical warehouse. Boost your productivity by reshaping your warehouse’s layout. For instance, you may need to widen the aisles to accommodate forklifts or other machinery.
If your business has been operational for a while, you should have a sense of the most in-demand products. Place those items closest to the loading areas. And ensure that you’ve used clear labels for all bins, crates, and barcodes.
- Invest in Better Training Processes
When you’re tweaking your company’s business plan, expand the training processes. Warehouse inefficiencies may stem from having poorly trained employees. If they don’t know how to stack inventory or operate machinery properly, that wastes time and space.
Use a blend of in-person demonstrations and online training modules during onboarding. Require that employees demonstrate their ability to use ladders, dollies, and forklifts properly. You may even want to create an internal certification process for machinery use.
And, of course, provide plenty of eye protection, hard hats, and other critical safety gear. Make sure that an employee knows where to reach a manager in the event of an emergency.
- Use a Warehousing Management System
Technology can help you stay organized as a manager. Use software to track barcode information and generate reports. And make sure that all employees can access the necessary data sheets to update inventory.
You may want to create mobile workstations within the warehouse, as well. That way, employees will be able to enter data or determine product availability while they’re standing next to it. This can help ensure more accurate reporting and reduce the need to walk across the warehouse to a computer.
- Turn to Better Equipment
Purchase narrow-aisle forklifts if you need to move through tight spaces in your warehouse. Or introduce elevators and stairs to make accessing stacked inventory easier. You may want to invest in an automated retrieval system, too, to cut back on labor needs.
You can make your warehouse greener, too. Look here to find out how you can use solar energy to power anything from pallet jacks to liftgates!
- Make Smarter Inventory Decisions
A good warehouse manager will do more than just track inventory. That person will scale back purchases on products that don’t move as quickly. And they’ll look for tracking errors using bar codes and scanners.
Use cross-docking, as well, to help move inventory more efficiently. Cluster items in zones where forklifts and lift trucks can access them easily for shipping.
Improve Warehousing Management
The right warehousing management approach can streamline processes to improve efficiency. Tidy up your warehouse’s layout and ensure that employees are trained on all equipment. And use software and green energy solutions to propel your business forward.
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