“How to organise a warehouse” is normally the first question that someone would ask themselves whenever they have a space for storing items. You could be a newly emerging e-commerce company or a well-established operation, organisation should always be at the front of your mind.
The biggest benefit of organisation is efficiency. An efficient warehouse will maximise its profits and grow much faster than an unorganised one. Along with that, you will be able to maximise the storage space available to you. Warehouse space is at a premium following the e-commerce boom that has followed the covid pandemic so making the most of the space available to you is pivotal. An increase in organisation will also help to keep your stock and your operatives safe, the latter being one of the most important things about running any business.
Where to start with how to organise your warehouse?
If you have a blank canvas this will be a little simpler than a pre-existing warehouse with a large stock holding and pre-existing infrastructure.
Firstly, to maximise the space available, you are going to want a racking system. This is usually characterised by a succession of uprights connected with beams that the pallets can be placed on top of. Whilst this is the cheapest option, it does leave room for error:
1. If the pallet isn’t placed on the beams properly, the pallet could fall and cause damages to products.
2. Usually, the depth of the racking is between 900mm and 1100mm. If the items, you are storing are not palletised then it has nothing to sit on.
3. If the pallet the goods are on is damaged it could break at any time and cause damage to the products on the lower levels or warehouse operators.
The solution is to use a form of decking across the beams to ensure that the above situations don’t happen. Fortunately, this is our speciality. We design and manufacture a wide range of mesh decks, known as the easySHELF™, to suit nearly all eventualities. There are 2 main types of deck available, wooden and wire mesh. Read our previous blog on why you should choose wire mesh decking over wooden decks.
What next?
The next best step would be to clearly label each level and run of the racking system. This means that when the operators walk down the aisle, they will be able to tell what is where. Although this seems obvious, a lot of old warehouses don’t keep up with relabelling racking as products and positions change which causes confusion and is inefficient. This could also be accompanied with a map of some description for operatives; this is especially important for large sites.
Another good way to improve organisation is to compartmentalise the bays using dividers. This creates dedicated picking bays and ensures the different products remain separate. This is also more suited to lose items which makes it easy for operatives to pick multiple items for an order. An example of this might be clothing for an online retailer. We design and manufacture our own dividers, known as easyDIVIDER™, out of our Nottinghamshire based manufacturing facility,
At QTS, we offer a variety of storage solutions that suit nearly every situation. Our stock products that are the most common solutions can be purchased from our online shop. If what you require is more bespoke in nature, contact one of our sales team today.