Are you managing your warehouse?
Whether you are a new retailer starting off, or one that has been around for years, managing your warehouse will always be an important task. We have put together some top tips to help you manage your warehouse, and make your business run as smoothly as possible!
1.ORGANISE, ORGANISE, ORGANISE!!
When it comes to maintaining a warehouse, one of the first things that should be done is organise it. What works for you at present, may not necessarily mean it will work for you in three or six months’ time. It is important to regularly review your warehouse’s organisation. Organise your stock in a way that can be easily accessed by your warehouse team. It is important to have designated areas for daily deliveries, and not just throwing stock down anywhere, as this will confuse your inventory control. A designated area for damaged stock is also a good idea to help keep track of what stock cannot be used. Another tip is to place your commonly sold stock at the front of the warehouse, so as to make it easier and more efficient for warehouse employees to locate, saving them time in the long run. Organisation from the start is key as it saves you plenty of man hours in the future. Without a well-organised warehouse, it can quickly become disorganised and difficult to navigate and potentially lead to safety hazards. Maintain a checklist or daily rota to ensure things are kept in tip top shape.
2.INSPECTION OF ITEMS IS KEY
When new stock arrives into your warehouse, make sure they are inspected and verified immediately. Shortages or damages should be recognised at inspection and should be clearly notified. Once the new stock is accounted for, they should be put away into their respective locations in the warehouse, keeping the organisation a high priority at all times.
3.MANAGE YOUR STOCK LEVELS
It is important to know how much stock is coming in and out of your warehouse at all times. Knowing what your least and best sellers are can help you manage your stock more efficiently. Stock that is left sitting on the shelf in a warehouse for a long period of time is subject to damage, depreciation and even obsolescence. Overstocking or understocking items can lead to inaccurate levels of revenue and expenses. You do not want to be spending money on stock that isn’t selling, and you do not want to be running out of stock that is in high demand so make sure and do your calculations before you order stock.
4.LABEL AND BARCODE ITEMS
Putting labels and barcodes on stock in your warehouse makes it easier for everyone involved to locate certain items with ease. This method can help you track your stock more efficiently, to save you time and money in the long run. It’s all about limiting the amount of errors made throughout the entire stock managing process.
5.USE A MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE THAT TIES EVERYTHING TOGETHER
A furniture store pos and software management system can help you tie in all your warehouse management needs. A software system such as Ordorite, can help you track your stock better, reduce the paperwork, improve your accuracy and efficiencies and save you time and money in the long term. You can create multiple stock locations for multiple stores and warehouses, and can manage all warehouses in one system. You can assign stock coming in to zones and shelving bays, and you can transfer stock from locations, and also transfer sold and available stock between warehouses and stores. You can also track historical movements of deliveries. The key is to minimise holding stock, in order to become more efficient with stock holding and more profitable and wise with your management skills. Ordorite can also create pick lists so warehouse employees can easily see where stock is in the warehouse and what stock needs to be delivered on any given day to customers, improving your accuracies and efficiencies all the way along the process.
To find out more about our software and furniture store POS, or simply to get some more advice on how to efficiently and effectively manage your warehouse, and other departments in your business, why not schedule an online demo and consultation with us, by clicking here!
I opened a retail store about half a year ago, and since business has been doing well, I was thinking of getting a warehouse for my products soon for better storage. I appreciate your advice when you told us to organize our warehouse in a way that is easily accessible to the warehouse team and by separating designated areas for specific purposes. I’ll be sure to consider what you said while I look for a management system to use for my warehouse soon.