Distribution centres are very busy places with items constantly on the move. To ensure you meet all your goals and don’t fall behind, it’s important that your productivity always remains high. If your productivity drops, you risk falling behind and not getting items out on time. By increasing the efficiency of your distribution centre you can ultimately increase your productivity which will allow you to meet all your goals.
When looking to increase the productivity of your distribution centre, the first thing you should evaluate is how your warehouse is running. You should assess your complete process from start to finish to determine how efficiently everything is running and whether there is anything along the way that you can alter to make your distribution process more productive.
When evaluating how your warehouse is running, key things you should be looking for are whether it is easy for your workers to complete your distribution process once an item enters your warehouse, and do they have everything they need where they need it. If your answer is no to either of these questions, the way your warehouse is running could be preventing you from reaching your maximum productivity.
Keep reading to discover 4 simple solutions to help you boost productivity in your warehouse.
Keep Your Warehouse Clutter Free
Cluttered and unorganised warehouses are not productivity-inducing environments. If it’s hard for your employees to locate items, it slows down their productivity as they end up spending more time searching for what they need rather than completing their tasks. The storage solution you use should make it easier to locate items rather than make it harder. Using a storage solution that includes provisions for labels is a simple solution to help create an organised storage solution. Adding labels to your storage solution gives everything a dedicated space to be stored while also making it easy for your employees to find items cutting down on their searching time. A great solution to help you organise your stock is Cleanspan shelving. Cleanspan shelving has provisions to add ticket stripping to the shelves which allows you to clearly label your shelves, giving all your items a dedicated storage space. Having your stock neatly organised can help to reduce picking errors which in turn will help increase your productivity. As a bonus, the wire construction of the shelving allows for extra airflow, which helps prevent dust from piling up a creating a hazard.
Maximise Your Storage Space
Most warehouses are tall buildings with unused vertical space that would generally go to waste. With space being of the utmost importance in any warehouse utilising your vertical space is the ultimate way to maximise and optimise your storage space. A great solution that can allow you to use this commonly wasted space is longspan shelving. Longspan shelving is a great versatile storage solution that can allow you to store a range of various items while also ensuring that they are easy to locate. Using longspan shelving to create a storage system that goes from floor to ceiling will free up valuable floor space, which helps to give you more room to work and move around. This will result in increased productivity as you will have more room to move around your warehouse faster and more freely.
Ensure Everyone Has Easy Access to Tools and Equipment
A great way to ensure that your warehouse workers have everything they need when they need it is by adding tubs and bins to each section in your distribution area. Filling the tubs with commonly used items such as tape, scissors, and other essential tools and equipment will save workers from stopping halfway through a task to go and get the piece of equipment they need to finish their task. A durable storage option, using tubs and bins around your warehouse can allow you to keep all your tools and equipment organised and easy to find, as they are available in a range of different colours that can allow you to create a colour-coded system. Using a colour-coded system in your distribution area can help make everything easy to find and locate, which can help you increase your productivity.
Make it Easy to Move Items Around
Using trolleys or mesh cages in your distribution centre can help streamline your processes. Rather than having people manually carry items from one section to another, a trolley or a mesh cage can essentially do all the work for them. They will allow your warehouse workers to move multiple items at once without the risk of injuring themselves. Increasing the amount of stock that can be moved at once will reduce the time it takes to move items around your warehouse, which will ultimately increase your efficiency and productivity.
Electing to incorporate one or more of the above solutions into your distribution centre can help you easily increase your productivity. As a trusted supplier of warehouse storage solutions, our team can help you find the ideal products to help you increase your productivity, check out our range today. For more information, contact our team today.
