Emma Radebaugh
When businesses oversee a warehouse, they must have constant and clear communication with their warehouse managers. When owners do not regularly communicate with their warehouse managers, miscommunications, accidents, and significant inventory losses are more likely to happen.
In this blog, we will outline the top four worst warehouse management mistakes that businesses can make. Then, with these fatal flaws in mind, we’ll examine how to prevent these setbacks.
Your Space Is Not Optimized
When it comes to managing a warehouse, space is one of the most important considerations to keep at the forefront of your mind. How you lay out your inventory will dictate how much stock you can ultimately fit into a single facility.
It’s important that warehouse managers also understand that storage space needs will consistently change over time as the demand for products fluctuates. So, as a business expands, warehouse managers should brainstorm new ways to optimize vertical spacing and other condensed storage tricks.
If you’d like to improve your warehouse’s storage space or your business is experiencing a space shortage, consider looking at your racking order to adjust the height and dimensions of your storage.
You’re Not Using Pallet Buyback Programs
One of the top worst warehouse management mistakes that a business could make is not participating in a pallet buyback program. When warehouses do not participate in these programs, they will not only increase their business’s overall waste, but also lose money.
Pallet buyback programs allow warehouse managers to sell their used pallets for profit. The money made from selling your company’s used pallets can then be used to buy recycled pallets or purchase new pallet materials.
Not only do you lose money from not selling back your used pallets, but businesses may sometimes even be required to pay for their used and broken pallets to be removed. So don’t miss this opportunity to earn more and spend less. Instead, start participating in buyback programs.
You’re Overpacking Your Pallets
While optimizing the space of your warehouse is essential, it’s also crucial to avoid overfilling pallets. Unfortunately, warehouse managers are often tempted to overfill their pallets past their weight capacity to fit more merchandise onto a single container.
While this may work for storage, pallets are likely to break once workers load and unload these containers.
In addition, overfilling pallets will both damage your pallets and possibly lead to a workplace accident. Workers are more likely to experience an injury or accident while loading and unloading overfilled pallets. Other pallet packing mistakes can also put workers and inventory in harm’s way.
Don’t risk the safety of your staff. Instead, avoid this fatal warehouse management mistake.
Your Warehouse Is Dirty
It’s not difficult for a warehouse to become dirty. With so many workers and supplies constantly shifting around one storage space, messes are a natural occurrence. However, if your warehouse does not already have a detailed and routine cleaning schedule, now is the time to create one.
Managers should establish a cleaning routine for employees to complete at the end of every shift. Having specific guidelines for keeping the warehouse floor and equipment clean will provide more accountability and guarantee a cleaner workspace.
Juggling the tasks of owning a business and communicating with warehouse managers can be taxing. However, these two roles must be in constant communication to avoid these fatal warehouse management flaws. The more communicative and transparent business owners and warehouse managers are, the less likely miscommunications, accidents, and financial losses will occur.
