What to consider when reorganising your warehouse storage

For every warehouse there comes a time when it’s necessary to reorganise the way that storage is handled. There could be any number of reasons for this, from business expansion to the need to make stock easier to access for those operating within the warehouse. It may seem like a complex and rather daunting process but reorganising your warehouse storage is actually not that difficult to do when you have a plan in place.

What are your goals?

The first step is to identify the goals that you’re working towards with a warehouse reorganisation. These could be goals that are specific to the performance of the warehouse itself or which relate to the wider business. For most enterprises it will be a combination of the two.

Where is best selling stock currently sitting?

Often, one of the most productive starts is to look at where you’re currently storing the most successful stock i.e. that which is either selling the fastest or which has the highest volume of sales. Making this stock more accessible could considerably improve the efficiency of your warehouse and make employees more productive. Identifying this stock – and where it’s currently located - is an essential first step for a warehouse reorganisation.

Bringing best selling stock together in one place

Once you have identified the stock that sells the fastest – or the best – the next step is to find the best location in which to position it. This should be an accessible area that will be the priority position in the entire warehouse. You can define this vaguely as a general space or be more specific e.g. an area on pallet racks between waist-high and shoulder-high. Doing this will mean that staff can get to the stock they need to access the most frequently much faster and more efficiently.

Plan the rest of the reorganisation

Once you’ve positioned key stock in the right location you can work outward from there. Identify the shelves that are going to be used to store specific items and then assign locations to storage bins so that you can make sure items are organised throughout their journey through the warehouse. This is an essential part of the process when it comes to planning so that everything in the warehouse has a well defined location and that your layout is as streamlined as it can be.

Assign the right codes

It’s best to wait until you have designed the entire layout of the warehouse before you start assigning barcodes. Reorganisation can sometimes take a few tries and it’s key to avoid wasting barcodes if you’re generating them before you have a final plan in place – you may need some flexibility to change product locations later on.

These basic steps will help to ensure that any warehouse reorganisation gets off to a good start and that you’re able to manage the process efficiently. The end result of the time and effort that goes into a reorganisation should be premises that function more efficiently and support business growth.