For companies involved in the manufacturing and distribution of goods, business growth usually comes from increased customer orders. While increased orders are never a bad thing, they can lead to companies struggling to get orders out on time or being overwhelmed by too much product in their warehouse. If this is a position you find yourself in, it means now is a good time to look at making your warehouse more efficient. Here are five ways to do just that.

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1. SKUs

The more SKUs you have, the more time-consuming it can be to find a product. Limit the number you use by choosing custom-made boxes that make it easy to store products or look at auto-boxing machines that will speed up the packaging process.

2. Pallets

Pallets allow you to store items more efficiently, letting you make maximum use of your warehouse space by stacking products rather than placing them side-by-side. Pallets have the added benefit of making transport easier. You can get more into a truck, increasing how much product you can ship at any one time and reducing the number of trips you need to make.

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3. Stock levels

Review your stock levels and decide if you have everything you need to meet customer demand. If you have too much or too little, think about how to reduce the number of goods in your inventory, which will help keep your costs down.

4. Packing

Having an area where you can pack products ready for distribution allows you to increase efficiency and improve your warehouse layout. Keep the area organised using pick bins, which help reduce pick times, shelving at different heights, and pallet racking for larger goods or bulk items. With all this happening it may be a good idea to have a Dust Monitor placed within this area to keep a safe track of the levels of dust in the air as workers health and safety is important. This will also help with efficiency of your workforce. To get your business one of these you could pop to sites including www.mattsmonitors.co.uk/construction-dust-monitors.html.

5. Packaging

Using the wrong packaging or having too many packaging options can lead to inefficiencies. Review the packaging you use and look at which types can be used for multiple purposes. Then reduce the number of packaging options. This will make the packaging process more time-efficient and your processes more effective.

Combined, these five methods will go a long way to helping you increase your warehouse efficiency, allowing you to fulfil your customer orders quickly, easily and on time.