Optimize Your Logistics: Give Your Stockroom A Makeover
By Stephan Reed
If you’re really busy coping with new orders coming in every day, it can often mean that your stockroom takes a backseat when it comes to giving it an overhaul and a makeover. Using Ball Transfers for smoother and more efficient movement of items is just one prime example of how you could transform your stockroom area and optimize your logistics, and there are a number of other ways to improve what is an integral part of your business.
Finding The Right Storage Solution
Every business faces a slightly different logistical challenge when it comes to designing their stockroom area, as the design blueprint will be heavily influenced by not just what products you’re storing, but quantity and temperatures can also come into play. When you’re setting out to design the right storage solution for your business, you’ll need to make a detailed list of your specific requirements and also your future needs so that you can make an informed choice and create a design that offers maximum efficiency.
The sort of questions that you want to be asking yourself when setting out to create the right design, layout and storage equipment you need, will include calculating how many heavy items you’ll need to store, whether the shelving units need to be mobile, and numerous other fundamental issues that when answered, will lead to a highly functional stockroom.
Make The Most of Vertical Space
If there’s one key area of stockroom design where mistakes are most commonly made, it’s the failure to consider or optimize the vertical space that you have available. There are many business operations where their stockroom design simply fails to utilize to make the most of the storage area that they have to work with. To get the maximum out of your storage area you have to think beyond horizontal solutions and try to find a solution that offers vertical as well as horizontal storage options. The other positive point to consider about using the tallest storage racks that are available for your space is that it offers a great solution for future expansion, allowing you to accommodate more products without having to increase your floor space.
Eliminate Wasted Floor Space
If you’re looking to almost completely eliminate wasted floor space, it’s well worth considering updating from your old metal shelving and looking at high density storage cabinets instead. What you’ll find is that these types of cabinets offer much more efficient use of the floor space that you have available, often resulting in a reduced footprint of 50% or more. In addition to this, using high density storage cabinets will also provide a better level of protection from the sort of dust and environmental contaminants that can be an issue with open and exposed storage units.
Stock Clearance
One of the best ways of giving your stockroom area a decent makeover is to take an aggressive stance on clearing as much old stock as possible. There is a fair chance that some valuable shelf space will be taken up by items that have been sitting for some time and might even have become obsolete, which means that they are not going anywhere, unless you do something about it.
Keeping old stock in storage is just a drain on your resources and is not going to generate any income, unless you organize a stock clearance sale, where you provide a range of discounts and incentives to your customers to encourage them to pay you and clear your shelves of old items at the same time. Having a stock clearance is often a win-win scenario, as many customers like the idea of bagging a bargain, and you also get the chance to take back control of your shelves and arrange the space more efficiently as well as stocking up on more current items at the same time.
Consider The Temperature
As well as sorting out your shelving options and inventory control, it’s also a good idea to look at how efficient your stockroom temperature measures are. Being able to maintain a consistent stockroom temperature ensures that employees are working in the best conditions for comfort and productivity. It also allows you to ensure that your products are stored and preserved to maintain the integrity of every item.
Giving your stockroom a major makeover will often prove to be money well spent and it could improve your profitability through greater efficiency and better customer service.
Stephan Reed is the digital marketing partner for Hudson Bearings, an international bearing manufacturer located in Columbus, Ohio.
