Managing a warehouse is not an easy thing, but it is easy to overlook some of the more common issues that sap productivity and increase costs. Read on to find out how you can steer clear of five of the most obvious mistakes in warehouse management.
- Poor Warehouse Inventory Management
Holding too much inventory in small space or the wrong kind of storage for the goods in the warehouse can lead to cause problems for the warehouse management. Excess inventory tends to Common causes of inaccuracies in inventory records and misplaced inventory as the warehouse team struggles to find space for materials. Keeping Excess and obsolete inventory in the warehouse is another problem — it occupies a large amount of space and reduces a team’s productivity because workers must periodically count the product inventory or move it to make warehouse for more current goods. While warehouse management often takes the blame for inaccurate inventory or misplaced inventory, it’s really the fault of the inventory team and management process in several ways. Keeping inventories lean by optimizing economic order quantities, employing just-in-time or lean methodologies to minimize stock on hand, and disposing of obsolete materials will help ensure that warehouse inventory stays as accurate as possible.
- Skipping Cycle Counts and Physical Inventory
Warehouse workers avoid taking physical inventories or performing periodic cycle counts because they believe it wastes time and is unnecessary. It is not the thing, even when your Goods records accuracy is more than 99%. periodically cycle counts should not be done to simply identify and correct any errors in the on-hand balances; but rather cycle counting should be considered a Safeguards quality management. Whenever an error is uncovered, instead of simply correcting the on-hand count, the team should undertake an investigation into how the inaccuracy occurred. Processes create, Finding and filling a gap of where the product actually is in procedures will improve warehouse inventory accuracy for all items, not just the occasional discrepancy.
- Sticking With an Inefficient Layout
While it isn’t easy to dismantle a complete warehouse to make a replacement or additional effective layout, improving the layout doesn’t need to be an associate all-or-nothing project… Too often, warehouse management never makes any changes from the original design, even if has dramatically changed its product mix.
Product layout makes sense to review the layout and product mix periodically — at least yearly — to ensure that there is still a good match. If it appears that productivity may be improved by slotting goods in a new location or by replacing some number of racking, this minor undertaking will have a major effect on productivity.
- Not Taking Advantage of Warehouse Management Technology
A warehouse management system or warehouse automation software solution can add efficiencies to any warehouse. For Examples: A warehouse automation software consolidating picking lists into the most efficient picking order, removing multiple trips to the same warehouse location; or a warehouse management system (WMS) helping to remove the paper by sending goods to pick lists to mobile devices, ensuring that the latest version is the one in use. In addition, a warehouse automation system keeps track of inventory locations, quantities on hand and operational status of equipment and personnel. Without a warehouse automation system, the warehouse is at a productivity disadvantage and will have a high amount of operating costs than similar warehouses that operate with a Warehouse Management System.
- Avoiding Warehouse Management Automation
There are many kinds of warehouse automation available — everything from barcode data collection equipment to automated storage and retrieval solutions. Almost every warehouse can benefit from implementing automation warehouse system.
Automated warehouse storage and retrieval solutions allow the warehouse to store a large number of goods in a small footprint. They increase warehouse productivity by removing unnecessary moving time and improve inventory accuracy by helping to ensure that employee always picks the right goods materials.
Although various other warehouse management mistakes might occur, these top five mistakes can have a major impact on warehouse inventory accuracy and employee productivity.