How To Increase Your Warehouse Efficiency

Improving your warehouse’s efficiency is important in the current economic climate to promote productivity. In order to help you move towards a fully efficient warehouse we have compiled some of the best advice available below.

It All Starts With Effective Leadership

The leadership within your warehouse is one of the most important aspects of an efficient operation. In order to look at improving your warehouse processes, services and even products you first need to start with your leadership.

Educating your warehouse leadership and making your expectations clear are the first two steps. Taking a more involved role within your warehouse operation is important both to gather the necessary information on a daily basis and to make daily decisions.

Warehouse efficiency — Internal layout of a warehouse could need careful planning

Communication is Key

Communicating with your employees is very important in the effective management of a warehouse operation. The productivity of your employees will be lower if they are working in a warehouse without clear communication and a lack of communication can even result in the wasting of resources and workforce turnover.

Make Use of the Available Technology

The warehouse giant Amazon has recently been heavily criticised for the working conditions and harsh expectations of their employees, however, one flawless aspect of their warehouse operation is the integration of technology systems.

The scanners used by workers in their warehouses are connected to a wireless system that delivers instructions for the next product to pick, a management system integrated by many warehouses worldwide, however, Amazon scanners also track employees’ location and productivity.

While we would not recommend that you try to implement the unrealistic and robot-like expectations adopted by Amazon, the ability to monitor the productivity of your employees can prove very useful and will allow you to communicate your expectations to any warehouse employees that don’t seem to be pulling their weight.

Make the Most of the Experience you have

Your business has invested time and money in its workforce and you should make the most of the experience you have in your employees. Your warehouse associates will know where processes could be more effective and where things could be changed.

Giving a bit of responsibility to your associates and making it clear that initiative and motivation can move them on to better positions is a great way to significantly impact how efficient your warehouse is.

Let’s Talk Processes

Processes are absolutely vital in boosting efficiency and can be a fantastic tool for you to use. Processes aren’t just great for increasing the productivity within your warehouse but can also be used to cut costs, save time and more efficiently manage your facilities.

Standardising your processes will ensure that all of your employees have a good grip on the processes that they need to understand and will reduce errors across the board. Variability in your processes can result in unnecessary errors, waste and a drop in productivity.

Equipment

The equipment you use in your warehouse is important. Hydraulic Pallet trucks are the most popular choice as unlike forklifts and powered stacking trucks they do not have any unnecessary downtime for charging or service purposes. They are also very low in cost compared to the other warehouse equipment options, meaning you can invest in a fleet of pallet trucks for the price of a few powered trucks.

Conveyor systems are also a fantastic way to increase the productivity of your stacking and packing teams, however, the set up cost is quite high.

A warehouse is a massive machine that needs constant servicing and checks to ensure that it’s running as it should. Hopefully these tips will help you increase the efficiency of your warehouse.

The author of this article is David Trent, a material handling and logistics specialist based in the UK.

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