Sep-08-2020 admin 0 Comments

How to Optimize Warehouse Space: 5-Step Guide

There’s no denying the fact that warehouses are expensive to operate. The cost of labor, occupancy, storage and material handling often becomes difficult for businesses to manage.

Most importantly, cost of warehouse space is at a premium these days, and under-utilizing space considerably naturally increases overall cost. So, to help businesses best manage space, we have provided a list of 5 awesome tips. Let’s delve deep!

 

Use vertical space

Ensure you’re using all the vertical spaces available as it helps save a lot of ground space. Try to analyze all storage units to understand the span height. Make sure to have a clear idea about how much vertical space is not being used.

Going forward, try to understand the existing design pattern and how the new design would impact your sprinkler design and fire code. That way, you’ll be able to optimize a considerable portion of the ground space of your warehouse.

 

Use containers that fit the stored item

Unpackaged goods are often placed in storage containers and stored on racks or shelves. Mostly, warehouses use containers of the same size, rather than buying containers of different sizes.

When stored on the rack, these containers occupy a lot of space, which otherwise could have been saved had there been containers of different sizes. So, the best approach is to sort the unpackaged items according to their size and buy containers accordingly. The next step is to store those containers on racks in an ascending/descending order based on their sizes.

 

Sell surplus packaging

This is a great strategy to maximize warehouse space. No matter how strategically a business owner plans the purchasing and production cycles, she/he will end up with excess inventory. Simply throwing those away or dumping them in a landfill is not only a threat to the environment but also incurs unnecessary costs.

On the contrary, if you consider selling the surplus packaging, it’ll help liquidate excess packaging. All that need to do is, consulting an experienced surplus packaging buyer.

A trusted surplus buying company will help you free up valuable warehouse space while also contributing to recover capital. Most importantly, business owners will be able to focus on their critical business operations (as they won’t have to worry about excess inventory) and seek opportunities to take it to the next level.

 

Minimize your aisle widths

Decreasing the width of the aisles between the racks is a time-tested strategy to clear warehouse space. According to veteran interior designers, it boosts the available warehouse storage.

The optimum space between the aisles should always be a notch higher than the length of the taller one. Once you have an idea about the minimum aisle width, try adjusting the aisles’ position or reduce the width by adding more racks.

 

Clean Up the Floor

Any warehouse’s floor space is extremely valuable as it’s one of the most accessible locations. Cleaning the floors daily and removing the waste to designated trash locations frees up a lot of space. And if you’ve any unused equipment occupying space in your warehouse, evaluate its condition and determine whether it can be sold. If the equipment can be used at a later date, but not useful currently, try storing it in another location.

So, here was our 5 step guide to optimize warehouse space. Let us know what you think in the comment section. Also, share the strategy you think would best suit your needs.