While you may be made to believe that warehouse inventory management is a very simple task, there is much more to the whole idea of setting your inventory so that it can easily be found. A good warehouse organization is not just about putting things where they are meant to be; it is more about maximizing productivity as well as saving money and time to improve inventory accuracy. Most practices like labelling are sort of intuitive and as such can be done without any application or software. The following are helpful tips to assist you in managing inventory and to increase your warehouse performance, and these tips can be applied to any warehouse operation with or without an application or software.
#1: Good Warehouse Inventory Management Begins with Upkeep
Have your warehouse organization reviewed, and regularly inspect your operations. For the fact that it was well organized at startup doesn’t mean it will meet your current requirements. Look out for things like, does the stock have a location that allows your crew to safely and easily access it? Are the quick moving SKUs placed between shoulder heights and waist so that they can be retrieved quickly? Is there any designed area for damaged items, and as such are these damaged items dealt with on a daily basis? When regular upkeep is lacking, a perfectly organized warehouse can get disorganized and very difficult when it comes to navigating it, which can, in turn, lead to safety hazards and also slow down your pickers.
#2: Find Out Who Your High Sellers Are
By keeping your high-volume items nearer to the shipping area and ensuring that they are easily accessible, you will shut down a lot of irrelevant labour time, making your workers believe you are over considerate. This is a win-win situation. Ensure that this is applied only to your well proven top sellers in order to stay away from irrelevant physical inventory reallocation.
#3: Reduce Unauthorized Traffic
Have you ever notice someone roaming about your warehouse and wonder who it is? A new employee? A confused and lost pizza delivery kid searching for your shipping office? A customer service agent picking on something he/she shouldn’t? Get rid of any unauthorized person roaming about the place where your inventory is stored. You can give your employees some sort of identifiers such as similar shirts that can help distinguish those authorized to work in the warehouse from those who are not
#4: Create Room for Receiving
Lots of inventory blunders can occur at receiving if your employees lack enough space for their work purpose. Don’t give them a small office at the extreme of the room. Getting rid of all receiving blunders will relieve you from future problems in the selling cycle, such as losing credibility, money and time.
#5: Use A Good Warehouse Management Software
At last, when you have decided to put everything together and move your warehouse operations to greater heights, consider a good warehouse management software like the ones from Meade Willis cloud-based WMS as it would help to ease the whole process.