According to the definition, “a warehouse is a place to store and protect the product from all kinds of hazards and damages”. So whether you are planning to establish a whole network of warehouses or need a single unit to store your items, some basic rules should be followed. In a bid to achieve this goal, a warehouse must have a huge space that is enough to store a bigger chunk of products and goods.
The designing of a warehouse should complement the handling, receiving, delivering, and loading operations of all kinds of equipment in an efficient way. All these features cannot be overlooked especially in this fast-paced commercial economic system where everything is getting processed in the minimum turnaround time. In general, one needs to ponder over a world of options before establishing a warehouse. When you pick the right location for your warehouse, you should focus on calculating the cost, deciding the space, managing the design, and using the right kind of technology to ensure smooth operations. Some of the most common types of warehouses include:
- Storage building
- Office space
- Loading unit
- Light industrial dock
- Computer unit
Besides, leading warehouses use three main technologies to ensure efficient management of the stored goods. However, their use depends largely on the requirement and demands of the clients.
SO, HOW TO BUILD A PERFECT WAREHOUSE?
A warehouse is a place where companies store their finished products and goods. Therefore, it should have a large space that effectively uses pallet racking which helps in handling supplies, maintaining inventory. Warehouse space should also be equipped with the best technology-studded gadgets including surveillance through CCTVs. Moreover, workers are supposed to work there for almost 10-12 hours, so it should be a safe place. Establishing a well-designed warehouse implies that workers should be able to not only do their job efficiently but it should also provide them the best working tools to make activities easier for them. It should assist workers in streamlining the building, processing, shipping, and trucking operations. Hence, you should always make sure to take into consideration the following factors while building a perfect warehouse.
LOCATION:
Well, the type of your business would eventually decide the location of the warehouse. Some businesses have to ensure fast delivery of their products to the customers while others deliver their goods only once or twice a year. If you are a company that has to often deliver the products, you might not require a big space. On the other hand, if you are going to deliver periodically, you should have a large space. In the latter case, the entry and exit levels would not be the same and this is why you are bound to store a big chunk of products. Also, if you have a large number of employees who are supposed to work at the warehouse, then establishing it far from the main office will not be a good idea. It will not only bring inconvenience for the workers but will also turn out to be nonprofitable and inefficient because it will incur more expenses and time. To make it work competently, select the location and buy the area by understanding the basic nature of your products or services.
INBOUND AND OUTBOUND ARRANGEMENT:
Apart from the location, many other inbound and outbound attributes must be taken into account to develop a warehouse. These features include receiving, storing, packaging, dispatching, and supply chain velocity. It is a great idea to have the answer to the following questions before establishing a warehouse.
- What kind of inventory do you require?
- What is the turnout level?
All these operations are bound to happen in the facility and are required to optimize the functionality. Furthermore, keep a check of your suppliers’ location, incoming supplies, lead time in the supply chain and make sure to know how trusted your suppliers are. All these factors need to be taken into account while considering all the inbound and outbound logistics.
BUILDING AND DESIGNING:
Now you are ready to build a plan and design the storage space. Make sure to answer the following questions before creating a perfect design for your warehouse.
- How much space do you need to store your items?
- What is the processing rate of your products?
- How much is the incoming and outgoing per day?
- What kind of products are you making or storing?
- Do they need extra care while handling or can be placed easily anywhere in any shape?
- How can the products be stored?
- Do they require a certain handling protocol?
- Do the products need any specific environment or room temperature?
All these questions matter significantly in designing a warehouse because some products require pallet racking. On the other hand, some can be easily placed in cartons or are even fine without any packaging at all. It means that you need to integrate flow, accessibility, space, and throughput in your designing procedure. By applying this method, you can streamline your work operations. Let’s take a detailed look at how these four factors help in maintaining the overall flow of work.
Flow adds to the overall design and layout and manages it in the way that each department, product, and human traffic get aligned. It is required to avoid the irregularity, density, and clashes during work and make the workflow uninterrupted.
Accessibility requires a level of high maintenance that can only be achieved with perfect layout design. It does not mean to have the products available at the time of the need but demands making the particular set of items with a certain batch number and date reference available.
Space is another feature that helps in allocating a place to each operation. While designing a warehouse, it needs to be assured that the operational place is more in comparison to the storage space. Fortunately, several storage items in the market enhance the storage capacity exponentially.
Throughput helps in balancing the velocity of the product. It includes features like handling characteristics and product dimensions. Besides, the rate at which product is shipping determines the delivery period and sets the pace of all operations.
SUMMARY:
This is an open secret that the warehouse plays a crucial role in managing all your stock, inventory, storage, logistics, etc. When you are going through the process of establishing a warehouse, make sure to balance features like flow, accessibility, space, and throughput efficiently. Your handling operations must be well-aligned so that they complement the location and nature of your business and the warehouse. The use of modern technology in the warehouse can play an important role in the smooth running of your warehouse operations and streamlining your supply chain.