Increasing the productivity and efficiency of warehouses is crucial for the organization as efficiency ensures roll outs on time and leads to customer satisfaction. A number of variables affect the productivity and efficiency of the warehouse, such as workload, third-party vendors, labour, staffing, and scheduling the roll outs. It is becoming increasingly challenging for organizations to focus on each area for improving the productivity of warehouses.
Here are some of the ways to enhance warehouse productivity and efficiency:
1. Performance based Incentives
The efficiency of the labour directly impacts the effectiveness of the warehouse. Incentivizing the work force to will positively impact labour productivity. By optimizing your workforce you’ll be able to optimize the time required for loading and unloading, along with streamlining the labour process.
A research reveals that incentive programs can boost performance by anywhere from 25 to 44%. Therefore, organizations can use performance based incentives for their labour force to maintain warehouse productivity and efficiency.
2. Track your freight
Technological inventions have made it simpler than ever to track your freight and ensure it’s on the right path. In fact, with the help of modern devices, the driver can now take the faster and the shortest route, saving time as well as resources of the organization. This will improve the productivity of the organization and reduce time-to-market. Use software to make sure same-zone orders are picked together and optimize sequence performance. You could collaborate with third party logistics to ensure smooth functioning of various logistics processes.
3. Technology to manage inventory
Inventory management can be a task for organizations that have multiple warehouses across geographies or for organizations that have more than many products. Implementing an ERP system or a warehouse management system (WMS) will eliminate human errors and save paper and time. The University of Arkansas had conducted a research that showed that the use of RFID increased inventory accuracy by 27 per cent in just 13 weeks.
Organizations could also leverage automation in truck industry and deploy advanced tools that will not only significantly reduce the labour cost, but also improve the warehouse productivity and efficiency.
4. Forecasting
Every business has a season in which the demand spikes up and the need for logistics and warehouse management increases. It is advisable to forecast such demands and make arrangements accordingly in order to avoid any extra costs, loss of business, or lags in logistics. Also, it is paramount to ensure safety of the produced goods to save you from any abnormal losses. Any mishap in the warehouse would negatively impact the warehouse productivity and efficiency.
5. Capture the vertical Space
Organizations must utilize warehouses wisely. It is imperative to make sure that vertical spaces are being used for storage purposes. This will save the warehouse costs and enhance the productivity. An Occupational Health & Safety article reads that one of the most effective ways to enhance the efficiency in the workhouse is to maximize the vertical space through pallet racking. The layout of your warehouse will impact the productivity. This way, organizations can optimize their warehouse costs and maintain warehouse productivity and efficiency.
Author’s Bio: Sharon Fernandez is a senior technical writer for Trip In. She loves traveling, singing and is a big movies buff. She has an experience of 5+ years ranging from Logistics, Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing.
