The ordinary person doesn't necessarily understand the complexities of warehouse facility management. The truth is, warehouse facilities are an integral part of the supply chain, and managing them correctly is even more important.
Let’s take a closer look at warehouse facilities and the best practice of warehouse facility management.
What is a Warehouse Facility?
A warehouse facility is a large building designed to store materials, components, and finished goods before they are sold and distributed to retailers. They are critical to the supply chain and offer more than just storage. These facilities also:
- Secure Goods: A warehouse protects goods by providing secure storage. This protection can be from theft or damage by ensuring heightened security and appropriate storage requirements, like specific temperatures.
- Facilitate Movement: As a hub for sending and receiving goods, warehouse facilities become a primary point for unloading goods and sending them out to the appropriate location. By relying on the facility for this movement, you ensure a seamless process that will meet consumer demands.
- Stabilize Prices: Keeping all your goods in a warehouse makes it easier to adjust to customer demands and can help prevent sharp increases or decreases in prices.
What is Warehouse Facility Management?
Warehouse facility management is an encompassing term that refers to the various principles and processes involved in the daily operations of a warehouse. It can include receiving and organizing the warehouse space, scheduling necessary labor, managing product inventory, and fulfilling orders.
Effective warehouse and factory facility management will optimize and integrate the various processes within the warehouse so that all operations work together cohesively. This, in turn, will help to increase productivity while also keeping costs low.
The benefits of warehouse facility management go beyond productivity and costs. Good management can create a ripple effect on the entire supply chain that creates stronger relationships with suppliers and consumers.
Best Practices for Warehouse Facilities
Warehouse management is no easy job. Various aspects must be addressed to ensure that everything in the facility functions properly. To ensure optimal success, you should implement the best practices for warehouse facility management.
For Productivity:
1. Create a Warehouse Facility Management Process
One of the practices for efficient management is to create an effective facility management process. Doing so will help ensure that the warehouse operates safely, accurately, and efficiently. The process aims to help optimize how space is used, streamline the workflows, improve inventory management, and help keep customer satisfaction high.
2. Track Warehouse Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs include space utilization, inventory turnover, and time to put inventory away. These metrics can help you gauge how efficient the warehouse is and give an idea of the productivity levels. By tracking the effectiveness of your existing strategies, you can easily determine where improvements can be made to increase productivity and efficiency.
3. Implement Batch Picking
Batch picking, or multi-order picking, is a method of operation that allows operators to pick up multiple batches or orders at a time in order to minimize how many trips warehouse employees would otherwise have to make.
Inventory Management:
4. Protect Inventory
Protecting inventory from potential theft will help prevent inventory and revenue loss and ensure that your stock levels remain consistent by keeping the supply chain running smoothly. Protection can include:
- Conducting inventory audits regularly
- Installing security cameras, particularly at entry and exit points
Add access controls to ensure only authorized personnel have access to storage areas.
5. Use Barcode and RFID Systems
Barcode and RFID systems can provide real-time tracking of products as they move through the supply chain. These systems will help provide accurate inventory counts and reduce the risk of human error that comes with manual entry methods.
6. Use a Warehouse Management System (WMS)
A WMS offers a more advanced solution for optimizing warehouse tasks, including order processing, space utilization, inventory, and labor management. With this sort of system, you can improve your inventory's accuracy, optimize storage allocation, and even ensure orders are fulfilled on time.
For Organization:
7. Create an Optimized Layout
Coming up with a strategic warehouse facility layout will help you optimize your available storage and ensure that inventory is easily accessible. Minimizing the amount of unnecessary employee movement will also help ensure a more productive and efficient operation.
8. Use Various types of Storage
Your inventory should have a specified home and storage method regardless of what you're storing. Use all storage methods necessary, containers, cabinets, drawers, etc., to store products and keep things clearly labeled.
For Safety:
9. Have Proper Lighting
The right lighting is essential; your warehouse needs to be well-lit for the safety of all employees. It will reduce the risk of accidents and other mishaps due to poor visibility. Good lighting will also help prevent trips, falls, and collisions by ensuring employees can see hazards and obstacles clearly.
10. Install Proper Floor Drainage
Floor drainage is essential for warehouse facilities of all types. Floor drain systems help manage wastewater by removing it from the ground's surface and transporting it to a designated outlet. This not only eliminates slip hazards, but also the risk of bacteria and mold growth, as well as the spread of contamination.
Slot Drain is a subtle system with a narrow, grate-free channel that can blend seamlessly with the warehouse floor. Options like the 10,000 and 8000 in particular, are perfect for a warehouse facility that offers heavy-duty Load Class E ratings.
The stainless steel design using T304 and T316 stainless steel also ensures the systems are sanitary and easy to maintain. It makes them suitable even for use in warehouse facilities for food products. They offer many other products ideal for warehouses, including a catch basin and advanced cleaning technology like clean-in-place and Flush Flo systems.
Perfecting Warehouse Facility Management
Warehouse facilities are essential to the supply chain, and they can serve several different purposes.
However, maintaining these warehouses is no easy task, which is why it is important to do everything you can to ensure it runs efficiently. Otherwise, the entire chain can suffer.
These are just some of the many best practices for factory facility management, but there are countless more. Each one is important, even if they may seem trivial; floor drainage is a perfect example, but you never want to underestimate how much of an impact something so seemingly small can have on the overall operation.
Contact Slot Drain to learn more about our products and determine which system suits your needs.
