Tips For Warehouse Organization
Having an organized warehouse is key to increasing productivity and maintaining a successful business. Let’s explore these tips for warehouse organization.
When it comes to creating a successful warehouse, organization is 100% one of the most important aspects. Each warehouse has their own set of problems and their own needed systems, however these tips apply to almost every industry and every warehouse.
Warehouse Racking/Shelving Organization
Whether you have 100,000+ SKUs made up of smaller items, or 1000+ SKUs made up of large items, how you are storing them on your shelves is very important. Not maintaining proper shelving can create miss-pulls, incorrect inventory, and problems that run up and down all your involved departments.
When storing smaller products with similar SKU numbers, we recommend not bunching more than 5 SKUs within the same container. This will drastically decrease your miss-pulls and make doing inventory easier. However, utilizing this method to it’s fullest requires ample shelving space. Some warehouses are limited to this. If you fall under that category, try your best to limit your SKUs per container.
When dealing with larger items that cannot be put into bins, try using strong rack dividers. This should solve any issues with products mixing.
ABC Analysis Technique
No matter the size of your warehouse using the ABC organization technique should be used. Using this method will reduce your Pullers time on each order and decreases time spent checking in parts. So, what does ABC mean? Let us explain.
A-Items: Best-selling items that don’t take up all your warehouse space or cost
B-Items: Mid-range items that sell regularly but may cost more than A-items to hold
C-Items: The rest of your inventory that makes up the bulk of your inventory costs while contributing the least to your bottom line
Product Labeling
Product labeling is severely underestimated within many warehouses. By correctly labeling your Bins or Shelving units, you can make finding SKUs easier and make picking orders more accurate. Here are some ideas on what you should label. Using an ERP system is always an amazing technique to increase your organization.
Product Name
SKU
Color
Size
Product Company
Schedule Regular Inventory AUDITS and reviews
This is hands down one of the most important parts of maintaining an organized warehouse. Depending on your staffing and the amount of SKUs you have will determine you frequency of your Audits. However, having monthly audits is never a bad idea. Doing this will verify your warehouse inventory, improve on any organization techniques, and will allow for feedback on the layout of your warehouse.