Warehouses play an important role for businesses, with the unassuming buildings storing products until they're ready to be shipped to customers. Warehouse operations ensure the entire process – from receiving the product, its proper storage, retrieval, and finally shipping – is performed with efficiency and cost effectiveness. Various methods have been developed to achieve this goal, with industrial AI computers among the latest, thanks to AI's ability to sort and process massive amounts of product data.
- What Is Warehouse Operations?
- Key Benefits of Streamlined Warehouse Processes
- Proven Tips to Improve Warehouse Efficiency
- How Technology Is Revolutionizing Warehouse Operations
What Is Warehouse Operations?
Warehouse operations deals with the processes involved with goods passing through a warehouse on a daily basis. For example:
- Inventory management, which tracks the physical items in the warehouse.
- Warehouse organization, or how the warehouse's physical space and location are used to handle stock.
- Order picking, which is the retrieval of goods in the warehouse to fulfil customer orders.
- Workforce management (WFM) ensures the right employees are available and working at the right time to process orders.
- Shipping coordination, so that orders are delivered promptly to customers.
Key Benefits of Streamlined Warehouse Processes
In warehouse operations, the goal is to ensure all the processes and decision-making involved work simply, smoothly, and at low cost without sacrificing accuracy or quality. The benefits are numerous when this goal is met.
- Customers are happier when delivery is prompt and accurate, and they will order more products from that same company.
- Warehouse workers can pick the right goods more quickly in a well-organized warehouse, which leads to faster order processing and shipping times.
- Tracking systems like barcodes make finding lost or missing items easier, which aids in resolving order disputes amicably.
- Properly organized and secured products mean there's less chance of workplace accidents for workers, resulting in lower injuries and their associated costs.
- Monitoring inventory in real time can prevent out-of-stock and overstocking issues, reducing wasted space and higher storage costs.
Proven Tips to Improve Warehouse Efficiency
So, how do businesses improve warehouse operations? Warehouses are complex places with many moving parts. The following four areas and their tips provide good starting points for warehouse operators and workers.
Warehouse Organization
- Organize your warehouse not only for workers' safety (see below) but also to maximize their ability to pick goods quickly and efficiently. Routes for incoming and outgoing packages, for example, should be clearly marked on signage and maps.
- Highly desired goods should be placed in easily accessible areas of the warehouse for pickers and other order-takers.
- Products should be separate and distinctive in their areas. For example, keep product identification and tracking easy for pickers by avoiding multiple SKUs in the same place.
Operational Efficiency
- Prioritize goods from the most sought-after/valuable goods to the least valued. An example is ABC Analysis:
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- A Group: These are the high-ticket items.
- B Group: These moderately-priced items move more slowly than C Group items but faster than A Group items.
- C Group: Items in the C category are low-cost and turn over quickly.
Organize your warehouse operations so A Group gets the most attention, from ease of processing to shipment, followed by B and C.
- Strive to reduce waste of any kind in the warehouse. For example, aim to reduce the time loading and unloading products from vehicles. Doing so improves operational efficiency while lowering costs.
- Staff training is an absolute must for your warehouse's operational efficiency. The product types handled and the technologies used in operations, such as industrial panel PCs, should be thoroughly covered and even documented.
Warehouse Productivity
- Keep warehouse workers and pickers comfortable. For example, add/turn on air conditioning even when temperatures are not extreme. Or consider allowing music to be played during work shifts. Studies have shown it can improve productivity among workers.
- Downtime, or when tools, equipment, and machinery break down, is costly both in time and money for repairs and replacements. Schedule maintenance using AI-driven predictive analytics to minimize any disruption to warehouse operations.
Worker Safety
- Pickers should find the warehouse spacious and easy to navigate, especially for highly sought-after goods. This prevents congestion, which could lead not only to slowdowns but also to possible collisions and injuries.
- Make sure all signage covering health and safety is displayed prominently. These range from hazard signs near dangerous equipment to workers' rights in cases of workplace injuries.
- Emphasize and enforce all safety rules, like only allowing properly trained workers to operate the warehouse forklifts.
- Consider setting up employee-led health and safety committees.
How Technology Is Revolutionizing Warehouse Operations
Besides adopting new operational methods, many warehouses have turned to technological tools to improve their efficiency.
Digital Identification and Tracking Systems
Barcodes, QR codes, and RFID readers and scanners allow workers to follow goods throughout their journey in the warehouse in real time. They drastically reduce errors (especially when compared to manual systems) while increasing speed and efficiency. They're especially effective when paired up with warehouse management systems (see below).
Warehouse Management System
As their name implies, warehouse management systems (WMS) are software that aid businesses in managing warehouse operations on a day-to-day basis. Besides storing the data obtained by the above digital identification and tracking systems, WMS can schedule employees for work shifts, provide sales forecasts, and automate stock requests.
Automation
Automation includes everything from conveyor belt setups to AI-controlled cobots. You should periodically review warehouse operations to see if routine tasks would be handled more efficiently and economically by such systems, especially in the long term.
Improve Warehouse Operations with Cybernet Computers
Warehouse operations deal with the daily comings-and-goings of products throughout the warehouse. Businesses are always looking for ways to simplify their numerous processes, and have turned to digital aids like warehouse management systems to do so.
Contact an expert at Cybernet if you and your business are looking for digital assistance to improve your warehouse operations. Our industrial computers are built from the inside out to handle warehouses' sometimes challenging environments. They come in a variety of forms (panel, tablet, and mini), which can be custom-built to your specs thanks to our capacity as an original equipment manufacturer.