How to optimise storage at your existing warehouse

3 August 2015 / Kosta Yankos

Seasonal swings
Sales growth
New product ranges

These can all put a strain on your warehouse operations, as you try to move more stock with less space.

To make the most of your current warehousing space it would be worthwhile to conduct an overview of how you are currently storing your goods.

Questions to consider include:

Is your pallet storage at capacity?
Can you commingle multiple sku’s in the one location if not what are the restrictions?
When was the last time that someone conducted an inventory analysis looking at slow moving or obsolete stock?

Here are three ways to optimize your current storage footprint.

Obsoletes stock disposal

This is a key element when trying to reduce your storage footprint or finding space within your existing 4 walls to store new fresh product.

Have you done a location fill report to determine what is the optimal location per skus based on sales frequency?
Can you identify your slow-moving stock?
Have you run an aged inventory report?

Chances are there is stock being stored, that would be better off sent to a clearance sale or disposed off.

Overhead space utilization

Can you store products higher if you change your racking to 7 or 8 bays high. Taking into account, you may require different materials handling equipment for this.

Use the cubic capacity of your site, to increase the density of storage.

Speak with your local racking provider for alternative options.

Bulk stack using clamps vs palletised storage.

Often we find that the pallets create issues when trying to bulk stack pallets more than 3 high, the weight and the configuration of products on the pallets can cause stability issues.

Sometimes the pallets are heavier than the actual products stored on them.

By using clamps skus can be aligned so that no overhang exists, which then allows for storage of the same sku to 5 or even 6 layers high.

Compare this to 3 high provides a very good ROI.