The storage capacity of your warehouse has a direct corollary with the day-to-day operations of your business. If space isn’t properly utilized, your options can quickly start to become restricted. At this point, companies can find themselves in a situation where their employee’s actions are limited and your sales as a whole start toslowdown. This is when you’ll need to consider what you can do to increase your warehouse’s storage capacity.
Identifying the Problem
Optimum facilities should be operating with around 75-80% of total space utilized, yet many businesses find themselves stuck around the 50% mark. When faced with the problem of an overcrowded warehouse, many companies think that the only solution is to seek out a new facility with a larger square footage. Not only could this be expensive, but it could also cause significant downtime to your business. While any modifications that you implement yourself will incur a cost, too, the end result of utilizing your existing space will be a far more cost-effective solution to the problem.
The traditional warehouse is made up of a combination of bulk storage and pallet racks. Goods that are stored in bulk storage are generally held in their original containers on the warehouse floor, and ideal for fast-selling items that are regularly arriving and departing. For more specialized items that typically don’t sell as quickly, these can be moved onto to the pallet racks.
Finding the Solution
If directly increasing your square footage isn’t a possibility, you can instead focus on making the most of your existing space. Each area afforded by pallet rack shelving is often referred to as a “vertical cube,” and includes all of the space around the load, the space above the cross aisles, and the total building clearance. When making alterations to this space, it’s important to remember to leave enough space for equipment to safely load and unload the goods without the risk of damaging them.
By placing back-to-back racks across the ceiling of your facility, you could also convert the space over the cross aisles into tunnel racks. When this is implemented, you could increase your storage capacity an additional 5-10%. However, this type of modification also presents a serious health and safety risk so you’ll also need to implement some kind of safety netting to prevent any loads from falling over areas where employees may walk.
Many delays in the sales process are the result of a poorly constructed warehouse facility. Correcting these issues can be a large undertaking and, if you don’t have the resources to address these issues, it may be in your interest to work with a recognized third-party instead. From here, you can focus your efforts on the other core areas of your business to create a stronger overall company.
