10 tips for better warehouse management | RAJA

Save time, increase productivity, improve efficiency: improving warehouse management is a key factor for companies in their race for performance. The continuous growth of e-commerce and the increasing number of orders to be shipped each day call for optimal management of the supply chain, from procurement to delivery of goods.Follow our 10 tips to improve your warehouse management.This article was updated in December 2020

1 – Choose the right logistics strategy for your needs

Smaller warehouses that ship 50 orders a day do not follow the same strategy as a warehouse that has to deal with more than 1,000 daily shipments.Identify your needs, assess your warehouse and the number of orders that leave it before you establish your logistics strategy. You can then choose between

• Small logistics: for 50 orders per day, in a 500 m2 warehouse with a team of 5 people, the organisation does not require any particular strategy. Picking is done to order and the team members can fulfil the different roles;
• Structured logistics: above 50 orders per day, the warehouse must become more professional. Addressing must be rigorous, picking must be done by order batches, and each team member must be assigned to a specific task;
• Industrialised logistics: above 1,000 orders per day, the warehouse must be automated to increase the rate of production. The logistics director then has a WMS (Warehouse Management System) installed to optimise the processing of orders and the physical flows in the warehouse;
• Logistics outsourcing: a last option, practical but costly, which consists of outsourcing its activity to a specialised logistics provider, capable of dealing with significant peaks in activity.

2 – Improve the working environment

Improving the working environment of your employees allows you to

• Limiting unnecessary movements: by optimising the addressing of products in the shelves to facilitate logistical picking paths;
• Limit the carrying of heavy loads: by equipping your warehouse with conveyors, forklifts or pallet trucks, you will avoid the risk of work-related accidents and remove a large part of the workload from your employees.

investing in quality equipment is also a non-negligible option in improving the working environment: a high-performance WMS, barcode scanners, screens, etc., will make life easier for team members and reduce the rate of logistics errors

3 – Structure and order the warehouse space

Good use of space is essential to avoid turning your warehouse into a “battlefield“

• Set up a numbering system for all products, called addressing, and establish logistical routes that will quickly lead to the desired product;
• Delineate storage and work areas: overstock areas, warehouse areas, order preparation areas, arrival and dispatch areas, conveyor areas, etc.

4 – Spécialiser les tâches de chacun pour une gestion d’entrepôt optimisée

Plus l’entrepôt se professionnalise, plus les tâches des équipiers se précisent. Et plus les employés ont une bonne connaissance de leurs tâches, plus ils vont vite.

Pour répartir les tâches de chacun, disséminez-les aux différentes zones de l’entrepôt: picking, préparation de commandes, arrivée, expédition, colisage, affranchissement, etc.

5 – Établir une zone de stocks à forte rotation

Il y a dans tout entrepôt des produits à forte rotation, ceux qui sont les plus commandés et donc sollicités par les équipiers.

Il est donc recommandé, pour une bonne gestion d’entrepôt, de créer une zone spéciale de stocks pour ces produits, un « magasin » proche de la zone d’arrivée et de la zone d’emballage/expédition. Vous améliorerez ainsi votre gestion des stocks, mais aussi la gestion des flux dans l’entrepôt.

6 – Organiser les produits en classe logistique

Pour améliorer la gestion de votre e

• Heavy or bulky products (which require dedicated and technical handling).
• Fresh products.
• Customisable products (which move from the storage area to the manufacturing area to the packaging area)..

this organisation will save you time in your logistics flows (receiving orders, picking, sending orders).

7 – Use the cross-docking technique

This supply chain management technique aims to reduce product movements and improve team productivity: in concrete terms, it consists of moving goods from arrival to departure without going through the stock. Cross-docking works, for example, for the dispatch of pending orders: on delivery from the supplier, the goods can go directly to the dispatch area. This reduces lead times and movements and will increase your operational efficiency!

8 – Focus on the preparation of similar products

These preparations are very important and will help you to save time in picking: if the analysis of the orders reveals the presence of the same product, you will gain by preparing them at the same time and avoiding the need to go through the same warehouse

Conclusion: the three key points to remember for better warehouse management

• Organisation is the key word in logistics warehouse management: a warehouse structured according to the real needs of the company, specialisation of tasks, quality addressing will save time and efficiency.
• The working environment should be as pleasant and safe as possible to protect the health of your employees.
• Simple tricks, such as high turnover zones, cross-docking, automated stock-out management, allow for better logistical management of the warehouse and storage in the long term.