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It takes a lot of time and effort to stay on top of the day to day operations of your warehouse. Here are some tips to help you stay ahead of the game and keep your warehouse running smoothly.
Organization. Organization is one of the key factors to maintaining a well-oiled machine. If your warehouse is well organized everything else will fall into place more easily. If you do not start off with and organized warehouse, there is no hope of keeping an efficient warehouse for an extended period of time.
Efficient Receiving. Inspect the materials which come into your warehouse right away when they come into your warehouse. If any mistake or damage is found when taking in product it should be documented and taken care of immediately. Put products where they need to go immediately as well and make sure all available product is put on the shelves.
Logical Picking. Try to avoid making your pickers go back and forth from shelf to shelf whenever possible. Arrange your picking to make sense for the picker and to save time in the overall picking processes. Additionally, arrange your shelving systems to also make sense for picking.
Reorganize. Just because the layout of your warehouse makes sense today does not mean it is going to make sense a few months from now. Know when you need to rearrange the layout of your warehouse to best serve you.
Quality Control. Do not allow a high number of wrong products to pile up and make a mess close to the packing station. Instead, do your quality control before it reaches that point. Packers do not have time to be double checking every single product they are handling.
Safety. You do not want your laborers to be constantly injured. Not only is that obviously bad for the workers, but it also costs you precious time that it would take to train a new employee or have other employees make up the work of the injured.
Lighting. Proper warehouse lighting goes hand in hand with safety. In addition, brighter lights help employees perform their jobs better and stay more alert.
Properly Trained Staff. When your staff is well trained, they are better able to perform their jobs with fewer mistakes. So take the time to schedule regular trainings to keep employees up to date on anything which may have changed from when they were initially trained.
Software. Choosing the correct software for your warehouse management can be a daunting task. But it is vastly important to be able to manage your warehouse properly and efficiently. Take stock of your warehouse needs and do your research on the software which is best suited to your needs.
Proper Customer Service and Delivery. Always be sure you and your clients both know where your products are while they are out for delivery. Provide real-time updates to your clients on the status of their shipments.
