Warehouses need to have everything running smoothly in order to maintain efficiency and productivity. If something goes wrong, it can upend the workflow and potentially lead to accidents on the job. Fortunately, these issues can easily be fixed, enabling your warehouse to operate to the best of its ability at all times. These are just some of the common mistakes warehouses make and how to avoid them.
Poor Housekeeping
When not taken care of, loading docks can get messy, the aisles can get cluttered with shrink-wrap, and pallets can get overfilled. Not only does that make the warehouse an unsafe area, but it also reduces productivity and efficiency, as the mess impedes the flow of traffic throughout the facility. This can best be avoided by following a thorough housekeeping schedule. Consider setting aside some time at the end of a shift for cleaning up the area around employees, thus ensuring that the next shift can run productively without a mess around them.
Rough Safety Practices
It’s easy to think that your warehouse is automatically safe as long as no accidents are happening, but that doesn’t immediately guarantee one won’t occur. Because anything can happen at any time, it’s important to report any accidents or near misses that happen and provide enough visual aids that any employee can determine how to navigate safely. Clear floor markings for forklift safety should be defined, with enough space between for everything to comfortably travel around the space. Additionally, make sure to clearly label all inventory space in the warehouse, as a lack of recognizable signage can potentially cause employees to get lost. Consider making a larger sign for that particular area of the warehouse and color-coding the items accordingly.
Lack of Development
When thinking about common mistakes warehouses make and how to avoid them, people don’t seem to realize that one of the most frequent issues comes from employee turnover. Sure, employees can leave a company for a number of reasons, but many times it’s due to a lack of training or development that would have allowed them to grow further within the company. Untrained employees can lead to a higher rate of accidents in the warehouse. Because of this, every position in the warehouse should come with a detailed training plan that teaches them everything they need to know, as well as a development plan that will allow them to increase their productivity in any position.
