Category: Warehousing Tips

Your warehouse productivity is directly linked to your ability to organize your operations and motivate your top performing employees. Ten great tips to manage your warehouse like a champ. From safety and compliance to top-notch equipment and training, you must make employee engagement a priority.

Below are 10 warehouse management tips to help you maximize your productivity this year.

1) Make your safety training interesting and relevant. One of the biggest challenges facing warehouse managers is the task of ensuring that employees receive regular safety and compliance training.

2) Outline company production goals to employees at the start of each year. Setting a common goal for your warehouse team will help give employees a target to strive to reach. If possible, specify an incentive that employees will receive if they attain the goal.

3) Upgrade to LED lighting. LED lighting is energy-efficient and cost-effective. LED lights also produce less heat, creating a cooler and more comfortable work environment for employees.

4) Recognize top performing employees. Your top performing employees are more than your best producers – they are the lifeline of your operations and role models for new employees. Reward them with verbal recognition and service awards such as gift cards and preferred parking.

5) Make sure all of your warehouse equipment is maintained. Regular maintenance of forklifts, pallet lifters, nail guns and other devices will help prevent injury and help your warehouse operations run smoothly.

6) Link bonuses to tenure and performance. Linking bonuses to performance and tenure will help bolster employee retention, satisfaction, and loyalty. Be sure to clearly specify performance goals and service tiers to help bolster engagement.

7) Update your pallet racking system. An organized pallet racking system will help you make the most of your warehouse space and provide easier access to fast moving inventory.

8) Invest in a cloud-based software system. The biggest advantage of a cloud-based software system is access to real-time inventory. A cloud-based system will allow you to know exactly how much inventory you have available, regardless of time or location.

9) Cross-train your employees. Cross-training will help ensure that you are prepared if employees are sick or leave your company. Even if you set aside one week per quarter for cross-training, you will be better prepared to handle staffing shortages.

10) Seek the expertise of an industry expert. The best way to optimize your warehouse operations is to enlist the guidance of a specialist in supply chain operations. A leader in the 3PL industry can give you the spark that you need to take your warehouse operations to the next level.

Effective warehouse management can be summed up in three words – Control, Co-ordinate, Communicate. Today’s warehouse environment is more than a stock-holding location. Warehouses are multi-site, possibly multinational, centers which form an integral part of the overall supply chain logistics. 

Warehouses communicate with multiple retail outlets down the chain, and multiple supply centers up the chain. A well managed warehouse impacts everything from practical factors such as delivery, to more nebulous factors such as the company’s year-end profitability. These three warehouse tips are the foundation of success.

Control

Control is an essential part of warehouse management. Systems must be in place to ensure accurate inventory management. Poorly-managed warehouses are over-stocked, and so, hold “dead money” or they are under-stocked and waste money paying for emergency shipments or holding up production because parts are not available.

Well-managed warehouses deliver control. They have software systems in place that create and clarify the basics such as zone and bin placement of products, monitor future planned and current stock movements. They manage just-in-time (JIT) supply to multiple outlets, and from multiple suppliers.

All key performance indicators (KPIs) in a well-managed warehouse are continuously monitored, so staff members know that everything is under control or that they must take specific (and known) actions to correct performance shortfalls.

Co-ordinate

Well-managed warehouses co-ordinate all appropriate parts of the supply chain. The point of sale (POS) software tells the warehouse management what quantity of which products have left the retail unit, so must be replaced. This co-ordinates with the warehouse activity so stock is picked, packed, labeled and tracked. The warehouse co-ordinates the shipment with the receiving unit, so they know what will be delivered, and when. This, in turn, co-ordinates with up-line suppliers, so they can manage replacement deliveries.

Communicate

Well-managed warehouses are part of an integrated communications system. POS activity communicates with finished stock control, parts inventories and factored items. It also enables accounts integration to calculate cost of goods sold, held, etc. It also results in accurate calculations for lead times, hold times and delivery times.

More mundanely, but just as important from a profit standpoint, it generates accounts receivable and accounts payable data, so cash flow can be forecast as accurately as possible.

Final Comment

Well-managed warehouses utilize the latest systems to maximize efficiencies and to maximize profitability. Every complex system has pain points, well-managed systems have fewer of them, and that is the result of controlling what happens, co-ordinating so they happen as planned and communicating so what is planned is also expected.