Check whether any of these things are missing from your warehouse if you’re looking for improvement. Increasing efficiency is essential for warehouses to achieve their financial and production goals. There is always a new tip or trick for small and large businesses to save them valuable time and money, while also maximizing their performance.
Ask yourself if any of the following items are missing from your operation in order to make your warehouse more efficient and a better place to work (for employee retention and recruitment). You can gain an edge over your competition with these five essential warehouse updates.
Modernizing Your Machinery and Equipment
Think about robotic forklifts that can work alongside their human counterparts in your warehouse but don’t require an operator if labor costs and turnover are affecting your business.
Automating the long distances that your labor force needs to travel every day will relieve you of the need to invest in a comprehensive automation solution. They are compact, efficient, and don’t mind hauling pallets long distances, so they work well in large warehouses.
If you can’t find the right equipment you may want to consider using Custom Metal Fabrication to create the workspace that you require to be ultimately efficient.
Tracking Fleets With IoT
With wireless fleet management technology, you can control deliveries, monitor driving habits to prevent breakdowns, and monitor truck performance to avoid downtime.
Using a fleet of sensors on your trucks, you can keep track of many functions and see how they are performing. The sensors on truck parts can monitor tire pressure and, as a result, fuel economy. It is in this way that downtime and unforeseen breakdowns can be reduced.
Several of these capabilities can only be achieved with trucks that already have IoT sensors in them, so this suggestion is easier to implement if you have an older fleet but could influence your decision as you look for new vehicles.
Updated Storage Systems
Although storage seems straightforward, there are probably more options out there that you haven’t heard of that could work better for your warehouse. It is possible to achieve profitability in a warehouse setting by installing a well-designed storage system.
Do you find that wire decking affects the visibility of the products on your pallet racks, for example? You can save your pickers’ time and effort with wire decking that offers better visibility and organization. This small, simple change could make a huge difference in optimizing warehouse employees’ time.
Solutions for Customized Logistics
Data can be gathered by logistics software to give you a perspective on your operation and identify areas that might be improved by automation.
Keeping track of all documents and paperwork that goes along with your operation, receiving and processing orders, checking inventory, providing customer service, and handling payments are all done with logistic software. In the long run, you might save time and money by automating and digitizing the process of processing invoices if you still manually process them.
You can avoid human error by using IMS (or inventory management system) if you’re still using spreadsheets to keep track of inventory. This is useful for avoiding stock-outs, excess product, or stock nearing the end of its shelf life alerts.
Automated Conveyor and Picking Systems
Amazon has developed a brilliant way of automating part of its picking process: Instead of picking products, it brings them to the pickers. Robots deliver goods to Amazon customers, where a picker assembles the items they need for shipments using low-profile, autonomous robots. Using robots like this will help reduce labor turnover, reduce walking distances, and increase efficiency when picking.
The whole time, you have been overlooking a second option. Seek out the sky! Take advantage of vertical space that isn’t being utilized by installing overhead trolley conveyor systems. Among the applications for which these systems are ideal are:
- Transporting or delivering empty cartons or totes
- Garbage removal without the necessity of human workers leaving their stations for the sake of cleanliness and safety
- Transporting products that may be messy or oversized for traditional conveyor belts (which include oily or grease-based products, oddly shaped items, and extra-heavy items).
- You could consider moving to a motorized driven roller system (MDR) if cost savings are your priority.
These five essential updates should help you to improve and create a smooth running warehouse that helps your business to succeed. Have you made any other updates that should be included in this list? Please share some of them in the comments below.
