Your warehouse is probably the most important entity of your entire business’ internal architecture. If your warehouse is disorganized and all over the place, you will be dealing with a lot of issues, like lost and late orders, employee strife and management shake-ups. If you just take measures to manage your inventory and find a way to make your warehouse more efficient, you will notice that not only is your warehouse operating at a higher frequency – with higher productivity – but you will also realize that your entire business is benefiting. When it comes down to it, managing your inventory is easy if you follow a few crucial steps. If your warehouse is severely disorganized, it is even more important to start organizing. Here is how to effectively manage the inventory in your warehouse.
- Make sure that your warehouse inventory is organized according to the demand of the product – your top selling product should be at the very front of your warehouse. This is a simple concept to understand, because if your fasted moving product is at the back, it will be more difficult for your employees to pick. If the product is at the front, it will be a lot easier to pick, pack and send to the trucks.
- Make sure that your entire SKU database is updated – if you don’t have SKUs, you certainly want to get started. The truth of the matter is that SKUs will help you locate your product with much more ease. If you have a large warehouse and you haven’t digitized your inventory list, you may want to set up the time and the manpower to have this task done, because it will be essential to the functioning of your warehouse and the rest of your business.
- Make sure your product is properly shelved – if you don’t have picking shelves, it will be difficult to really find a place for your inventory and then organize it. For instance, Heubel Material Handling, Inc. has some great shelving units that will allow you the opportunity to stack your product high. Indeed, stacking is important for the sake of organization, but also for the sake of organization – your inventory will be a lot more visible this way.
- Make sure that you liquidate inventory that you don’t need anymore – if you just have too much inventory, it may be time to liquidate. Indeed, there are many liquidation companies that will facilitate the sale of the items that aren’t moving. If these products are sitting there taking up space and not making any money, it may be hurting your business’ bottom line. This is why it may be time to purge.
- Make sure that your warehouse is clean and that items are picked up off the shelf until the end of the day. When it comes down to it, just keeping the space tidy will be a huge help when it comes to organization, because it could motivate your employees to keep things more organized. In the end, cleanliness is essential for efficient warehouse operations.