Three ways to save money in your warehouse

Managing a warehouse takes a great deal of energy, effort, and expense. The building is vast, the real-estate is valuable, and the market is variable enough that you need to always approach the process with flexibility. The costs will always be considerable, but there are simple ways and means to prevent them from becoming crippling. To help you make the very most of your warehouse, and how it works, consider the following three ways to save money in your warehouse.

1. Look to the lighting

A well-lit warehouse is absolutely necessary. For everything from safety and security to effectiveness and accuracy, your staff need to be able to see clearly and work without straining their sight. Naturally, this can cost a great deal of money. The volumes of electricity involved become vast when you consider the sheer size and span of space the standard warehouse stretch across.

The best way to approach these issues in 2023 and beyond is to look to new technology. The standard incandescent light bulb was perfected over a century ago by people like Thomas Edison, Lewis Howard Latimer, and Joseph Swan. However, that technology also increases energy consumption by over 625% in comparison to more modern LED bulbs. While the initial purchase of incandescent bulbs might be a lot cheaper, over the course of their life they more than makeup for the initial cost. Lighting need not be so expensive. Investing in LED bulbs is a logical choice.

2. Maintain and sustain

The equipment that keeps your warehouse running is the lifeblood of your overall operational situation. It should be treated as such. Regular maintenance and monitoring of your tools should be a built-in part of your ongoing daily work, rather than something you save to only do when things get bad and break down.

The idea of avoiding disruption by only waiting until something more serious happens is a false economy. When a piece of equipment stops, the disruption caused is far more substantial than anything that might happen around a series of planned and pre-prepared maintenance sessions.

Entire workflows will have to stop and restart or even be fully cancelled if a project is stopped because of faulty equipment. But if something is only temporarily out of action and can go online again later, everything can continue as was planned. An ideal way to maintain efficiency in the warehouse.

3. Harness the power of automation

Manual management of any warehouse is always going to be expensive. But with the right levels of new equipment and visionary technology, it doesn’t have to be as hugely difficult as it has been in the past. In the past, automation has meant a huge volume of expensive and bulky new infrastructure that would have taken a bespoke built warehouse and a few years of waiting before it both came online and started adding value to the business as a whole.

New technology such as WMS systems however, has made a massive change to this. No more built in place infrastructure, now it is free standing shelves. No more complicated equipment, now automation is self packaged in self contained autonomous mobile robots or handheld devices. No more long waits for activation day, and even longer timescales on ROI.

Industry 4.0 is changing the way that automation saves money in the warehouse. It allows your entire system to be faster, more effective, and more accurate. All at a fraction of a cost of a manually operated warehouse performing the same tasks. The technology is available, and those companies that don’t take advantage will be left at the commercial mercy of those who do. The automation revolution is on the way.

Discover how OrderWise can optimise your warehouse

Learn more about the many ways that your warehouse can be made faster, more accurate, and more efficient with the help of OrderWise. See how a software suite that integrates everything from couriers to CRM and WMS can work to deliver your business a radical model of improved operations.

The competitive edge we deliver has already helped over 1,300 businesses in the UK and beyond. Discover why what we do is so valuable by reading more about the work we’ve already done. See how your business could really benefit by speaking to our specialists today, and learning more about the excellent and real progress our ERP solutions can deliver.

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