How to Keep Your Warehouse Organized When Scaling Your Business
To have your business grow and expand is the greatest sign of achievement. The ultimate goal is to satisfy customers and provide the most outstanding service which in turn results in more sales and conversions. It is what you and your fellow employees have been working towards since day one. What sometimes gets overlooked during this great time of success, however, is how to maintain the organization and optimization of your warehouse workflow processes which helped you to gain such success.
It’s likely that your company excelled in many facets of business in order to be in the position for growth. Aside from having a product and brand of quality, a very important factor must have been the organization of your employees and products- particularly in the warehouse. Managing warehouse processes may have been something that you didn’t need to worry about much when your business was running on a smaller scale. However, with abrupt growth can come abrupt problems if you’re not properly prepared for them.
More Physical Inventory
With the growth of a business, there will undoubtedly be new challenges to be faced with within the warehouse. Your products are in higher demand and you will need a greater inventory in order to satisfy your increasing number of orders. With many more physical products being held in your warehouse, you need to decide how you’re going to get things organized in a way where they can be easily located without clutter or confusion. If you are in a situation where you are not changing your warehouse location and have to fit a lot more inventory into a building which is on the smaller side, this can be a great challenge. However, with the right planning, it can be done.
Organize you inventory according to likeness of product, popularity of orders, alphabetically, by color-any way that works for your unique business. Set the goods up in rows or isles or bins to keep everything flowing smoothly. This way, when a warehouse employee goes to put away or pick an object for shipment, they will know exactly where to go to find it. This organization will help workers to utilize time in the most productive way and not waste the day searching for products.
Keeping Productivity High
Speaking of utilizing your time in the most efficient way, it is important to pay attention to this factor as the growth of your business may make it more difficult to do so. More business means more orders, more shipments, and more transporting of goods around the warehouse. You need to keep these processes organized and recorded so that no stone goes left unturned. As previously mentioned, having things in the right place avoids situations such as employees wasting time searching for products. However, there are many ways to ensure that time is being used in the most productive fashion possible. Employees should have designated roles so that everyone knows where to go and what to do to be most useful. They should also have a clear set of tasks laid out for them down to the details of which products will be picked in what order and from where. When going through the warehouse gathering items to be shipped out, there is no use in walking up and down the same isle multiple times to pick one order of goods. And organized plan as to how products will be picked will save time and efforts for more important tasks.
How Do You Implement Such Organization?
To have an understanding of how to keep things running smoothly within the warehouse is one thing, but to find the right way to implement it is another entirely. With so many people involved in the warehouse management processes, everyone needs to be on the same page about so many things. From beginning to end, anyone involved in placing orders, managing physical inventory, or handling shipping processes must all share one plan of organization. In order to do so, your company is going to need an inventory management software system that works for all aspects of the business.
A good inventory management system goes far beyond pen and paper these days, especially with a growing business. You need a software which can keep everything flowing in a way that saves time and eradicates confusion. This should be done in an automated fashion so that no one has to worry about recording each and every process manually. Unfortunately, finding an inventory management system that fits your exact business needs is near impossible. Any “out of the box” software is going to fall short of your company’s needs because every business is so unique. There is no way that every brand can fit their workflow into a pre-built system without making adjustments.
Introducing SkuNexus
Luckily, there is a system out there which prides itself on its customizable abilities. SkuNexus is the world’s most customizable commerce operations system. It covers all areas of inventory management processes from ordering, to picking, packing, and shipping. The best part about it is that instead of changing your company’s workflow to fit a software system, SkuNexus does it the other way around! We build out any and all features you need to keep things running as you need them. Every company is unique and we’d love to hear about yours! Click here to schedule a demo with us to discuss your requirements today!
