How To Increase Efficiency In Your Warehouse

CONTENTS

• Arrangement
• Refine your operations
• Utilise technological advancements
• Employee incentives
• Enhance your storage
  • We are factory cleaning specialists
    • Get in touch

According to Statista, 215,000 people worked in warehouse or storage premises in the UK in 2019. This is a huge amount of people to manage on an every day basis.

Running a warehouse is a large and complex task that requires careful preparation and communication. Problems arising in daily operations need to be dealt with effectively and in a timely manner, which can be difficult if the processes in place are not efficient.

Read our blog below to find out practical ways you can increase efficiency within your warehouse. This will help to boost staff morale as well as increase satisfaction from senior management.

Consider arrangements

Using your time effectively is a great way to improve overall efficiency within your warehouse by having a seamless layout. If you arrange the room in a methodical way, staff will be able to find items more quickly. This will in turn save employees time in trying to work out where things are in a confusing design.

Having a good blueprint and careful planning in place will give room for other tasks that need attention. It will also make the working day run more smoothly.

Refine your operations

To do this successfully, you will need to continuously monitor what works well in your warehouse and what doesn't. For example, if a process can be improved, you should deal with it promptly before it has a detrimental effect on operations. 

Refining operations could include ensuring staff attend regular professional training courses, or reviewing current processes such as stock control or health and safety. If you keep on top of these, you could save yourself money in the long-term. 

It is also wise to encourage employees to have their say on the processes currently in place. This may provide fresh insight not thought of previously as well as help staff feel valued within your business

Utilise technological advancements 

Investing in modern warehouse management software (WMS) will help speed up many of the processes you have in place. This could include barcodes or the use of tablets to monitor stock and deliveries.

It will also set you apart from competitors who still do many of their processes manually. While purchasing the technology is important, it is also crucial to teach your staff how to use it properly. This will reduce time wasting, as well as help speed up processes overall.

Enhance your storage

This is a method you can use to improve productivity within your workforce. Enhancing your storage capabilities means less clutter on the warehouse floor, and is a great way to cost-save.

Creating a visual map of the warehouse is a useful way of planning how you can optimise the storage capacity within your warehouse. It will also help you to plan the best places to keep certain objects or materials.

Increasing your storage could include actions such as sorting shelves and rails so that more room can be created, or only allowing for a certain amount of space in individual parts of the warehouse to reduce the chance of clutter building up.

Offer employee incentives

Offering employees incentives is another method you can use, which could be in the form of a pay increase, or other workplace benefits. It can help your warehouse to boost its output. 

This could increase employee retention, as staff are more likely to be happy in their working life.

When you give your employees incentive, it is recommended to set up structured appraisal process to keep on track. This could entail discussing goals as well as asking the employee for any feedback about how they have found the process.

We are warehouse cleaning specialists

Our team are able to create a bespoke plan that is tailored to your individual warehouse cleaning needs. As part of the process, we can conduct a coronavirus surface protection to help safeguard everyone in your workplace from this infection.

We also hold various accreditations here at ICE Cleaning, such as IPAF, which means our technicians have the skills to work from height safely. The warehouse cleaning services we offer will help ensure a high standard of cleanliness on your premises.

Other services we provide factory cleaning, which may be of interest to you. To find out more about this offering, please click here.

Get in touch

To book our warehouse cleaning service today, we can be contacted on 0208 066 0360 or enquiries@icecleaning.co.uk.

It might also be useful for you to have a look at our health and safety checklist for warehouses, as the health and safety of staff in a workplace is so important.