Warehousing in Australia is growing! According to Ibisworld, general warehousing and cold storage has maintained stable growth of 2.5% for the 5 year period from 2011 to 2016. For many Brisbane and Queensland businesses as demand continues to grow it is inevitable that existing facilities and factories will need to be redesigned or relocated.
There are numerous scenarios that may signal a need to make adjustments in warehouse layout – supply chain backup, temporary and long term storage at capacity, poor inventory control, health and safety issues etc. If you find your business in this situation, you might need to consider investing in redesigning your facility.
Work Environment
Whether it’s a shed or a warehouse, a safe and comfortable environment should always be top of mind when renovating a facility. Any accident history that directly related to the previous warehouse design needs to be brought to the attention of the new layout designers. Low hanging ceiling bearers, inadequate entry doors, poor floor surface are examples of issues that need to be addressed. In addition to safety, ensuring that workers are comfortable and undertake their labors in an ergonomic environment is important. Workers play a significant role in your business; human resources experts have proved that pleased employees have higher productivity than those who are discontented. Ensuring clean environment, efficient processes, appropriate work breaks and facilities are examples of an environment conducive to happy workers.
Optimizing Operations
Analyzing stock profiles is a vital action prior to undertaking any renovation of your facility. Additionally, evaluation of warehouse standard operating procedures is vitally important to minimize future bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Poor planning in product picking, distance between related products, communication systems and efficient production lines may result in disoriented workflow and poor productivity. Ensure that you eliminate these to make your upgrade investment worthwhile.
Managing New Products or Services
After the in-depth planning of your business operations and processes its time to review all your existing and upcoming products to verify if extreme changes in product demand are likely. Allowing for extra storage in your warehouse during peak periods needs to be considered. Getting the balance between having enough space and having redundant or unused space is a challenge. Additionally, ensuring that (1) your workers can adapt to the new warehouse layout and (2) your new warehouse management systems are adhered needs consideration.
Modifications in Warehouse Configuration
Avoid losing hefty amount of time and money by understanding your warehouse structure in the most detailed way. Never ignore even the slightest change in your production methods. All changes in production, systems and equipment should be reflected in further updates of the warehouse layout. Innovation has made small modifications to the warehouse easy and effective. Current trends in warehouse racking are advantageous for warehouse configuration as technology increases the level of efficiency and productivity in the workplace.
