Can your warehouse be more efficient?
by Claire J. Content ManagerRunning an efficient warehouse is crucial for successfully
meeting deadlines, keeping costs down and preventing waste and accidents. With increasing
costs and rising customer expectations, developing ways to increase efficiency,
and cost-effectivity is important in today’s business world. Here’s a few
things you can try out to improve your warehouse’s efficiency.
Manage Inbound &
Out Shipping
Inbound and outbound shipping has the ability to greatly
impact your profit margins so it’s something you definitely want to focus on. Often,
it’s best to engage with a specialised consultant who can identify the areas where
spending can be reduced. Knowing where and how to reduce investment, and then
where to strategically reinvest these savings is key to warehouse efficiency.
It’s also worth noting that having control over your whole logistics operation
is ongoing and key to keeping costs down.
Incentive Pay
Incentive pay is hardly a new idea, but it’s rare that it is
implemented properly, in a profit-focused way. A large number of workflows
within warehouses are undoubtedly pick and pack, which work perfectly with
strategic incentive pay.
When thinking about incentive pay, it’s important that you
target areas that can be improved upon, and not areas where you are already
getting healthy amount of productivity. There’s no point paying for
productivity that you are already getting, this is the opposite of efficient!
Find the areas that can be done faster, or at greater volume and develop a
strategic incentive payment plan.
Utilise Specialised
Equipment
One of the most effective ways to improve efficiency in a
warehouse is to reduce the risk of accidents and injury. Using proper storage
equipment when it comes to dangerous chemicals and hazardous equipment is key
in preventing accidents and in turn, improving productivity.
Dangerous goods storage specialists, like Storemasta,
can provide risk assessments and all the necessary storage equipment to safely
store your dangerous goods, reducing risk and improving productivity.
Simplification
As warehouses grow and mature, it’s common for more and more
tasks to be layered upon one another. As new workflows are added on top of new
ones, it’s easy for your employees to become overworked and so less productive.
Take a look at all the processes employees have to work through and consider
what is and isn’t necessary, paying extra attention to anything that slows down
or bottle-neck processes.
Not only does it impact productivity, but having a congested
workflow also takes its toll on employee morale. In the workplace more than 75%
of those working in the US believe they aren’t being given the best
chance at working to optimal efficiency due to using outdated workflows and
technology.
Measure &
Optimise
To improve, you must first know what is happening. Without a
clear idea of how your workflow is running, you can’t expect to find ways to
increase efficiency. You should regularly be receiving feedback and measuring
all sections of your warehouse.
It can help to get granular with your approach, looking at
how much each package or shipment costs, how much return shipments cost and how
much certain errors cost. From there, you can work backwards and determine how
to keep costs low in each area. Again, this should be an ongoing process as you
continuously aim to optimise your warehouse.
Software as a Service
Software automation is here and in full force. Without
utilising software as a service to your advantage, you are losing huge amounts
of efficiency. SaaS systems are able to accurately perform cost analyses much
more efficient than a team of strategic analyses.
The faster you can identify warehouse process that can be reformed
into more productive and effective processes, the more efficient your warehouse
will be overall.
Continuous
Improvements
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Created on Feb 19th 2019 23:52. Viewed 576 times.