Do you sell or produce goods and have to store them before they go out to their final consumer?
Then, you’ll likely need to acquire a warehousing space. However, this also means you’ll need to stay on top of your warehouse storage management if you want an efficient business operation.
You see, purchasing or leasing a facility, buying equipment, and hiring workers are only the first steps to getting your warehouse up and running. Next, you’ll need to figure out how to manage that warehouse storage to ensure efficiency and productivity.
Unfortunately, many warehouse owners have had to endure a long learning curve before achieving highly efficient warehouse management. But you don’t have to.
This article walks you through essential tips for managing warehouse storage and more.
What Does It Mean to Manage Warehouse Storage?
A state-of-the-art warehouse is not as valuable if it’s not operating efficiently as you are likely to be stuck with high operating and logistics costs and low-profit margins. Thankfully, leveraging established warehouse management best practices should help you quickly resolve this problem.
The best way to describe warehouse management is as a controlling oversight that ensures all warehouse operations run smoothly and efficiently to ensure high productivity and efficiency.
In other words, you’ll need to keep track of all the processes involved in operating a warehouse to ensure efficient service delivery. This includes space maximization, movement of inventory, inventory management, shipping management, order fulfillment, and more.
Generally, business owners who partner with some of the best warehouse providers don’t have to worry about the rudiments of warehousing and focus better on other aspects of their brand.
However, if you decide to have a go at managing your warehouse, you’ll need to optimize warehouse storage to ensure a seamless flow all through.
Thankfully, we can help.
Tips for Managing Warehouse Storage
Here are some effective practices to help you manage warehouse storage in the best way possible:
1. Know your Storage Capacity
One of the essential keys to optimizing your warehouse storage is knowing its maximum capacity. After all, how can you make the best of your storage space if you don’t know how much it can take?
But do you know that analyzing your warehouse capacity goes beyond measuring the floor area?
Many warehouse owners do not leverage the headroom their facility offers, so they quickly run out of space. Instead, you also want to scope out how much vertical room you have and figure out the best way to maximize all of your warehouse storage capacity.
But, make sure you stack your inventory safely and securely.
Pro tip? Don’t forget to factor your sprinkler layout and fire code into your considerations.
2. Consolidate Locations
Consolidating your storage locations is one of several warehouse storage best practices that can boost your operational efficiency and productivity.
Your employees can typically locate items much faster if they are in a logical grouping order.
So, if you store the same or similar items in multiple locations throughout your warehouse, consider bringing them together. By doing this, you maximize your warehouse space better and ensure faster storage and retrieval operations.
3. Consider Installing a Mezzanine
Another tip on how to manage warehouse storage is installing a mezzanine.
The best way to describe a mezzanine is an extra, makeshift floor between two double-height floors that does not extend over the entire floor space (usually 25% or less). Think about a partial floor between the ground floor and the first floor of your warehouse.
A mezzanine can help maximize warehouse storage as it provides extra space for the office area without eating into the floor area. Also, you can store some light to medium-weight products on your mezzanine. In addition, the frames of your mezzanine can also function as storage for low-height goods.
Related Article: How Do Providers Charge for Warehouse Storage?
4. Choose Suitable Storage Equipment
The best warehouse providers are the ones that have figured out the best equipment for storing and operating within their warehouse.
Sometimes, your equipment may prevent you from utilizing your warehouse space in the most effective way possible. For instance, the racks in your warehouse may limit the items you can place on or in them.
As a result, the alternative may be to keep these items on the floor or relocate them to another area, which can mess with your inventory arrangement.
Instead, invest in racks and slots best suited for the items (or range of products) you stock. This way, you can maximize your storage equipment without limitations.
5. Leverage Technology
Another way to manage your warehouse storage like a pro is to leverage technology. Today, several warehouse storage systems can help you improve your warehousing operations significantly.
For instance, automated systems can help you with everything from inventory tracking to demand forecasting, order fulfillment tracking, and staff productivity reports.
However, you should note that warehouse storage management systems are only an extension of the warehouse manager’s capabilities.
Advantages of Efficient Warehouse Management
Here are some benefits you get to enjoy when you manage your warehouse storage efficiently:
- Better warehouse space maximization
- Lower operating expenses
- Higher inventory visibility
- Improved worker efficiency and productivity
- Faster order fulfilments
Related Article: How to Calculate Warehouse Storage Costs
Wrapping It All Up
How you manage your warehouse storage plays a critical role in determining your business workflow and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it’s usually best to do all you can to ensure a smooth and efficient warehousing operation.
We hope the tips for managing warehouse storage that we shared in this article help you achieve better warehouse management.
Remember, prioritizing your warehouse storage management can be a lot of work. But, it does have a lot of advantages. However, you can leverage the best warehouse providers close to you if you’d rather focus on other aspects of your business.
RoadLinx offers top-quality warehousing and storage solutions. We can take the hard work of warehouse storage management out of your hands. This way, you can focus on maximizing business growth and satisfying your customers.
Call 905-760-1141 to discuss warehousing solutions in Ontario.
