Whether your warehouse is used for fulfilment or bulk storage, or instead serves as part of a larger supply chain, it stands to reason that the higher the number of items your warehouse can get in and out of the door, the more money your business can make.
Nonetheless, in the process of increasing your warehouse’s throughput, you must be careful to avoid any sloppy errors occurring. Otherwise, you could sometimes find yourself unable to provide the right product at the right time.
Here are several ways you can effectively tighten up your warehouse processes.
Implement The Right Software
Many warehouse issues arise as early as the receiving stage. This stage is basically where your warehouse staff receive a delivery before unloading, counting, and confirming the fresh inventory and storing it in the warehouse. Sadly, there is a lot of scope for error here.
New items that arrive in a batch could be easily overcounted. As a result, some customers of your business could end up ordering products from you that aren’t actually in stock.
To guard against such warehouse receiving mishaps, you can install and automate inventory management software, which would leave less room for human error.
Use Barcode Scanners
One plus point of inventory management software is how seamlessly you would be able to use it with barcode scanners.
More to the point, members of your warehouse team would be able to use these devices to quickly scan barcodes on packages as they turn up. This way, these workers can more easily track inventory.
This barcode-based tracking can extend to other parts of the warehouse, too, enabling your staff to know exactly where a given item of stock is at any given time.
Also, barcode scanners don’t have to be overly difficult to maintain. Our team here at Mobile Computer Repair, for example, offers Honeywell, Bluebird and Datalogic scanner repair services for businesses right across the UK.
By keeping a close eye on the functioning and reliability of your organisation’s barcode scanners, you will be in a good position to respond quickly to any issues that arise – including by getting in touch with experts such as our own. This, in turn, will help to keep your firm’s warehouse throughput high.
Be Selective About How You Recruit and Use Warehouse Personnel
Software can play a part in maximising warehouse throughput, too, by helping you to monitor the popularity of specific products. This can assist you in forecasting demand — and how demand levels could change at ‘peak’ times of year, such as Christmas and (depending on the products in question) the summer.
With this data at close hand, you could suitably adjust your warehouse’s staffing levels or assign particular employees to new duties. The ultimate objective here is to make sure your workers are being put to the most efficient use.
Optimise Your Warehouse Layout
Much work in a warehouse involves basically getting items to and from specific storage spaces reserved for them in the building. For this reason, the warehouse’s layout can be surprisingly influential in how quickly members of your team are able to get routine responsibilities done.
To help illustrate this point: if you have singled out certain items as being in especially high demand, you could have them stored near the shipping area. Meanwhile, products ordered less frequently can be kept further away. It is all about reducing travel distances where they most need to be reduced.
Keep Barcode Scanners in Working Order
Don’t underestimate how crucial barcode scanners can be to various warehousing processes. By attaching barcodes to aisles and shelves throughout a warehouse, you can help workers with barcode scanners to find the right places to store and retrieve individual items.
Still, all of this would depend on you keeping the devices’ barcode scanning abilities intact. To ensure this, you can take advantage of our expertise in — for example — Intermec, Motorola and Zebra handheld computer repair.
Why not give the Mobile Computer Repair team a call today, on 01202 946070, or submit and complete our straightforward online contact form, to learn more about how you can arrange a barcode scanner repair from us? Our free assessment service, a turnaround of just a few days, and a subsequent 90-day guarantee can help give you the utmost peace of mind.