3 AREAS TO INVEST IN WAREHOUSE EFFICIENCY

The logistics industry is entering exciting times. Warehouses, long a relatively static area, now host multiple converging technologies poised to transform the way we do business.

If you want to keep up with the competition, it’s a critical time to make investments in your warehouse operations. To that end, here are three of the most effective areas you can invest in.

 

Warehouse Management

In 2021, the best warehouse management upgrade you can make is a modern WMS suite. Warehouse Management Software (WMS) is the key unifying system that links everything from intake to shipping. A WMS provides information transparency as to what materials are in the warehouse, in what quantity, where they’re headed, and how they’ll get there. And not only that—a WMS also helps you design the layout of your warehouse for optimal efficiency, manage the scheduling of workers, control the yard, and pass the information on to your shipping partners.

Selecting a WMS is a big decision with ramifications for years to come. Here are some of the factors to weigh when choosing a WMS:

  • Does the WMS feature set match your needs?
  • If you have unusual requirements, can the system be customized?
  • Will it be hosted on the premises or in the cloud?
  • Does it have the capability to use barcodes and RFID for inventory tracking and picking?
  • Does it offer real-time inventory updates?
  • Does it support your picking method?
  • Will it give you detailed reporting you can use to assess warehouse performance?
  • Is it the right time to adopt this technology?

After examining your needs and the feature sets available on the market, invite the most interesting software makers to submit a bid for your business. Have them outline how their solution fits your specific requirements, what the cost is, and how long it will take to fully adopt their system.

 

Warehouse Technology

One of the most powerful technologies for the modern warehouse is high-density shelving. This storage innovation places shelves on tracks so that shelves slide together and empty aisles are removed. This doubles the storage capacity of a given warehouse footprint.

This shelving style is also compatible with pallet racking for compounding efficiency gains. Another benefit is that high-density mobile shelving reduces the distance workers must travel to access items, increasing labor efficiency. Finally, the mobile shelves may be locked together, increasing rack security.

A second storage technology you’ll want to consider bringing to your warehouse is flow racks. These racks have angled decks covered with rollers that use the force of gravity to carry boxes and pallets from the back of the shelf to the front. These racks separate the loading (always from the back) and the picking (always from the front) to maximize uninterrupted access. The design of a flow rack demands a FIFO (first-in, first-out) storage procedure. With use, you’ll find that these racks are optimal for rapidly distributed goods like food products.

Readers are likely familiar with pallet racking—the practice of placing pallets directly onto purpose-built shelving—but you may not have heard of more recent innovations in the field. One newer approach is drive-in pallet racking, where the forklift operator pushes each pallet onto a rail system and each successive pallet pushes older pallets further in. As you’d imagine, this necessitates LIFO (last-in, first-out) storage. The main advantage of drive-in pallet racking is its incredible storage density.

A related version of pallet racking is known as push-back. Here the basic procedure is the same as drive-in racking, with the difference that the rack is constructed so that when a pallet is removed, the remaining pallets are automatically pushed forward to the front of the rack. The next time you need to pick up a pallet, it’s ready and waiting, in position for picking. Push-back pallet racking has the effect of reducing the number of forklift operations required to manage your LIFO strategy.

Another innovation warehouse owners should consider is an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). An AS/RS functions on the principle of bringing the stored items to the picker, rather than the picker going to the items. As dynamic shelving, AR/RS can have either a primarily vertical or horizontal orientation. The most common vertical version is known as a Vertical Lift Module (VLM).

A VLM holds large trays on an electric lift that rises to the ceiling, allowing you to make the most of your vertical space. When an operator wishes to access a tray, he enters the identifier in the user interface, and the VLM activates to bring the desired tray to the waist-high access counter.

The horizontal version of an AS/RS is a horizontal carousel, and it works similarly to a VLM but rotates laterally, carrying multiple bins within reach of the operator. Both systems are highly effective at reducing picking time, increasing organization, and increasing storage density.

 

Warehouse Organization

When it comes to warehouse organization, one of the best places to invest is in warehouse design. Do you have separate and well-spaced unloading, staging/reception, storage, picking, and shipping areas? If not, that’s the place to start. Though often neglected, a well-spaced staging or reception area is crucial to avoiding an initial intake bottleneck as you perform quality assurance and putaway on new goods.

If you have the luxury of planning an entirely new space or a total warehouse overhaul, there are three popular warehouse designs to consider. First, the most versatile design is the U-shaped warehouse. This design puts the unloading dock and the shipping dock next to each other. Goods circulate through the warehouse from unloading to staging to storage to picking to shipping in a U-shape. Consider this design if you want to get the most out of a space that can fit all the docks on one side.

The next design is the I-shaped (sometimes called through-flow) warehouse. Here, unloading docks are on one end of the warehouse and shipping is on the other. This design allows for a lot of designated storage space, and has a simple and logical movement pattern, making it popular for high-throughput warehouses. To get the most out of your I-shaped warehouse, store the most popular goods at the end of the warehouse near the shipping bay.

The final design is the L-shaped warehouse. Here the unloading docks are at a right angle to the shipping docks. In the crux of the L you have a large storage area with space for staging and picking on opposite sides. The L works best with a large-volume warehouse that can fit the required docks.

 

The Best Warehouse Investments

We’ve covered three critical areas of warehouse investment: management, technology, and organization. For modern management, we recommend purchasing and implementing a WMS solution. The implementation phase is key—be sure to get all managers on board with the new system and explain how it will benefit the company to follow the new procedures.

When it comes to storage technology, we’ve seen exciting developments in high-density storage, flow racks, and newer pallet racking techniques. Lastly, we’ve reviewed the most popular patterns of warehouse design. If you’re lucky enough to be able to plan out a new space, consider a U, I, or L-shaped warehouse based on what best meets your needs. At the end of the day, there are many potential investments that can upgrade your warehouse. Evaluate your current operations, see where you can improve, and enjoy the process of change.

 

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