6 most crucial warehouse processes, and how can we enhance them?
Summary
“Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, layout, processes, and procedures,” words by Tom peters.
Warehouses deal with many processes that need to be streamlined to work well.
With the growth of e-commerce, warehouse businesses are expanding immensely. These significant industry shifts provide substantial opportunities to enhance your warehouse processes productively.
This blog post will explain the Six most crucial warehouse processes in detail to maximize your operations productively.
Written for:
- Logistics Specialist:
Collaborates with distributors and customers to complete shipment, understanding the Supply Chain and Logistics industry trends and the effects of AI on their sector.
- Operations Specialist:
Make sure that procedures and repetitive functions in the warehouse are running clean and reliable. Focus on increasing productivity by integration and improving business processes.
- Warehouse Automation Manager:
Understand how artificial intelligence (AI) warehouses can help staffs do their work more efficiently.
- Business Strategist:
Establishes an organizational benchmark to meet annual targets, oversees the staff, and Creates structural and cost-cutting strategies for the organization’s development.
Introduction
Optimizing the warehouse is the crucial factor required to effectively attain economic profit and customer satisfaction. All the customers are more familiar with the front-end eCommerce process like searching, adding the products to the cart, and making a final payment, but various techniques are hidden behind the scenes. Processes like receiving, putaway, packaging, picking, packing, and shipment are the six basic operations that play a massive role in the warehouse. Optimizing these six procedures can effectively streamline your warehouse service, reduce costs and mistakes, and increase your perfect order rate.
Let us look at each one in-depth!
Receiving
Receiving is the initial and essential warehouse operation. To successfully achieve the receiving process, we must verify that we have received the right product in the appropriate quantity, condition, and time. And in the case of failure, it would have more significant ramifications on all future activities. Receiving also entails transferring ownership of the items to the warehouse, which makes the warehouse responsible for keeping the products in proper order before they are delivered.
Properly receiving freight allows you to filter out faulty items to escape responsibility. In addition, by effectively receiving the cargo, we can optimize the receiving operation in the warehouse. In other ways, we can deploy package dimensioners to capture the dimension of package and DIM weight of the parcels, which permits you to boost the receiving process with accurate dimensional measurements.
Putaway
The second warehouse operation involves transporting incoming merchandise from the receiving zone to the best storage spot—aids in moving products from one location (point A) to another (point B). Failure to position products in their most optimal place can reduce warehouse efficiency. The following advantages of properly storing goods include:
- Can store products safely and rapidly
- Can effectively mitigate the travel time
- Can maximize the warehouse storage space
- Can effortlessly find, track, retrieve the products.
By introducing automation like automated package dimensioners and slotting and space management systems, we can optimize the warehouse space for each pallet to streamline a spotless putaway process and maximize space utilization.
Storage
Storage refers to the process of storing products in the most appropriate storage area in a warehouse. When appropriately used, the storage system maximizes available space in the warehouse while increasing labor efficiency. However, optimizing the storage mechanism is only feasible if the appropriate KPIs are monitored. We can estimate the warehouse storage and perform other warehouse operations with proper package dimensioners.
Picking
The method of gathering products in a warehouse to satisfy consumer orders. Since it is the most expensive procedure in the warehouse and distribution centers, accounting for up to 50 percent of your operational expenses, optimizing it would help you save money and maximize warehouse performance. The only aim of streamlining this method is to improve accuracy, as errors can directly affect consumer loyalty.
To optimize the picking process, we can introduce the appropriate technology in the warehouse. For example, smartphones and wearable devices, which allow clerks to wirelessly view picking lists, access systems in real-time, and check anywhere in the warehouse, can help speed up the picking process.
Packing
Packing is the process of combining and preparing chosen products in a sales order for shipment to the consumer. One of the most critical facets of packaging is minimizing damage before the products leave the warehouse. Furthermore, packaging should be lightweight to not add to the products’ weight but still be low enough to keep packaging costs down.
We can effectively optimize the packing process using various packing tools like automated package dimensioners and software to assist warehouse staff in performing the tasks.
Shipment
Shipping the products to the consumers’ doorstep would be the last phase of the parcel journey from the warehouse. The successful shipment is accomplished only when the products are sorted, loaded, and delivered to customers safely in an estimated timeframe. Therefore, we need to streamline several critical tasks by optimizing the shipping process by deploying the automation into the workspace environment. To add more value, we can implement mobile applications to track the flow of products and can effectively verify shipment on the fly.
Conclusion
Online shopping is becoming more common for both shoppers and eCommerce verticals. Nowadays, most people shop online, check for products, and order them from the comfort of their homes. When a company expands and strives to satisfy client orders as soon as possible, the need for a warehouse becomes more apparent. Essentially, e-commerce companies must recognize the significance of warehousing for their productivity. We can effectively streamline various warehouse operations by using the aforementioned warehouse processes.
