Organized for Efficiency: 5 Essential Warehouse Design Tips
Your warehouse design impacts how quickly every single item enters and leaves the warehouse. Streamline your process with these warehouse design tips.
Did you know 34 percent of businesses ship their merchandise late because it’s not available in stock?
Without the proper warehouse organization, it can be quite difficult for businesses to handle the merchandise that goes in out of their facility.
If you want your warehouse to operate more efficiently, you have to start at the bottom and look at the design. In this article, we will share 5 warehouse design tips to make your warehouse work more effectively.
1. Make Sure You Have: Flow, Accessibility, and Space
There are many necessary components when thinking about designing a warehouse. Before you begin deciding what you will need, it’s important you think about the three principles of warehouse design, flow, accessibility, and space.
Because the last thing you want to have in your warehouse are traffic jams, you need to think of the flow of things. You need to ensure even during the busiest of times things will keep flowing.
Every product and piece of equipment need to always be accessible to the team. Otherwise, it can slow down the entire operation.
If you cannot afford an Amazon-size warehouse, you will have to work with the space you have. It’s important you maximize on the space you have so all of the products are well-stored and you can still re-organize in the future.
2. Set Clear Objectives
Before you begin with your warehouse design plans, you need to make sure you define what the objectives are.
It’s important to decide what the primary purpose of your website is and go from there. For example, some companies design their warehouse around the reception of merchandise, while others focus on cross-docking.
3. What are the Inventory Needs
Once you get the objectives out of the way, you should focus on the inventory you plan on storing.
Effective warehouse design revolves around the size and capacity of your inventory. Make sure you plan for the size of your individual inventory, total amount, and when it will arrive.
Depending on what you’re storing, you also have to make decisions about the pallet height, aisle space, and other equipment you might require.
4. Come Up With a Plan
The next step in your warehouse design process is to come up with a plan to put it all together.
Make a list of all the steps in order of priority and assign team leads to complete each step. Once the plan has been completed, run it by the rest of the team so they can pot any weak links and you can address them before the project starts.
5. Do a Test Run
Before you safely install racks, shelves, and any other hardware make sure the warehouse is fully ready for the installation.
It doesn’t hurt to lay down an outline using tape or chalk. This way you can see how everything will look once it’s pieced together.
Follow These Warehouse Design Tips
Now that you know about these warehouse design tips, it’s time to re-think the way you organize your inventory.
Start by setting clear objectives, come up with a plan, and determine the needs of your warehouse.
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