10 Fundamental Principles of Efficient Warehouse Design

An efficient warehouse design is essential for optimal flow, efficiency, and most importantly safety. Designing a warehouse tailored to your needs will allow for smooth operations, letting your business shine.

Let’s dig in to the top 10 fundamental principles of warehouse design.

1. One-Way Flow of Goods and Vehicles

One-way flow is a critical principle for warehouse efficiency because it allows pathways to remain clear. Having clear designated pathways will allow for the uninterrupted flow of goods, people, and vehicles.

2. Minimal Handling of Goods

The more we can reduce handling products in the warehouse the better. Ideally a product should only be picked up and put down 2–3 times, but in certain contexts could be even more than that, often around to 7–8 times. Minimizing touch of goods will cut down on unnecessary stoppages, reduce human error, and reduce labor costs.

3. Carefully Control Inventory

Make sure that your warehouse is only holding the right amount of stock to meet customer demand. Consider anticipated sales, physical volume of goods, and logistics necessary for moving stock. The goal is to minimize wasted space without impacting fulfillment.

4. Adopt a Triadic Warehouse Design

A triadic design uses three zones to sort goods: 1) fast-moving products, 2) medium-moving products, and 3) slow-moving products. Using this system allows priority items to be picked up first. Triadic design is especially important for manual operations.

5. Optimize Labor Efficiency

Maximizing labor efficiency is critical for effective business flow, especially considering labor costs are a major expense for warehouses. Labor can be made more efficient in many ways, including effective operations and design flow. To optimize labor, start by measuring time put into warehouse operations and compare that to actual work output.

6. Measure Performance

You can only improve what you measure. In terms of warehouse design, this means examining your work output, studying how your rivals are operating, and gathering data. Ask yourself what optimal pick rates should be for your warehouse. How does your performance compare to your rivals and to industry standards?

7. Gather Data Effectively

In order to measure your performance, you must have specific data gathering in place. Look at all transactional data, including goods received, goods picked, packed, and shipped, returns, etc. Look at peak and trough statistics so you can see when a system is working and when it isn’t.

8. Use Warehouse Management Software

Software can help to monitor a lot of the day-to-day management of your warehouse. Automation will be key as complexity increases, so it’s well worth the cost to adopt an appropriate software system. These can track processes like item picking, vehicle movements, and so much more. For example, voice picking allows a picker to track their work hands-free, making their work more efficient.

9. Choose the Best Materials Handling System

A handling system will help keep track of stock keeping units, or SKUs. The more products your warehouse manages, the more logistically complex SKU management becomes. This is where choosing the best materials handling system comes into play. A simple system will work best for a low volume of SKUs, while a medium or high-level system will be important to grow stock.

10. Consult Widely

Lastly, make sure you consult a wide variety of people about your specific design needs. Everyone from the manager to the drivers will have a valuable perspective, so make sure you keep an open mind and listen to advice from as many sources as possible.

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Yankee Supply is here to help you tackle all your warehouse design needs, from concept to installation. Efficient warehouse design is half of what we do. Contact us for more information and to sign up for our newsletter.

Originally published at https://www.yankeesupply.com on June 30, 2021.