by Haris Quintana
When it comes to customer satisfaction, there’s one aspect that a lot of business owners forget to focus on: the warehouse. They are responsible for packing up products safely and sending them off, and if a customer receives an item that is broken or that might even be the wrong thing, the fault may lie with the people who work in the warehouse. If that’s an issue for your company, read on - there are ways to easily improve the efficiency in your warehouses.
Use All The Space
If you’re considering buying more space so that you can expand your warehouse, take a look at the space that you already have and consider whether you could utilise it more efficiently. One thing that many people tend to forget is that vertical space exists as well as horizontal space. If you invested in taller units, you might be able to store more in a smaller space. You should also make sure that you install the best kinds of units for the products that you have, so that employees can reach each item easily and so that space isn’t being taken up unnecessarily.
Invest In Quality Materials
It’s important that you invest in quality materials in your warehouse. In warehouses more than in any other area of your business, safety is key. People are moving heavy things and operating heavy machinery, and the risk of injury is higher than with those who sit at desks for most of the day. It’s important to make sure that you invest in machinery that is entirely safe and excellent quality so that nobody gets injured. Look for the best quality items - for example, pallet racking should be bought from a company with extensive experience and who can take a look at your space and recommend which products are right for you.
Train Your Staff
As well as investing in good quality machinery, you should invest in your staff by spending time and money training them. You want to make sure that they’re comfortable doing their jobs and unlikely to get injured. You should also make sure that they understand the company as a whole: providing training that helps them understand the importance of their jobs and what they do will increase general morale.
Keep On Top Of Stock
It’s important to make sure that you keep track of the stock that you have in your warehouses. How much do you really need safety stocks? They take up a lot of space and often end up gathering dust when you don’t actually need them. Make sure that your inventories are regular and up to date so that you can really see what you need and what you need less of in the future. Feeding back this information can really help the company save money.
Implement An Incentive Program
Finally, an incentive program is a great way to make sure that performance targets are met. Noticing the hard work of your employees and rewarding them when they hit those targets is important - it could be with bonuses, or it could be with occasional pizza lunches. Just make sure that targets are attainable and that hitting them is acknowledged.
Improving efficiency doesn’t have to be a hassle - provide quality materials and good training and watch your results improve!
