It feels crazy to think about the holiday season while making plans for a beach trip this weekend, but for warehouses, holiday planning can’t start soon enough. In fact, the National Retail Federation reports that over 55% of consumers do their holiday shopping in early November, which pushes optimal warehouse management much earlier in the year. In preparation for the most wonderful time of the year, check out these three tips for an optimal and efficient warehouse.
1. Build Your Rockstar Teams
One of the greatest challenges of the holiday season is staffing. Filling open positions, retaining existing employees and ensuring that every employee is properly trained is no easy feat. To build a strong holiday team, it’s important to start recruiting early in the year so everyone can be trained and up to speed once Black Friday rolls around.
Turnover is an issue many distribution centers struggle with. Incentives to attract and retain top talent such as scheduling flexibility, bonuses, ongoing education and training, and a clear path of upward mobility are just a few things that can help you stand out as an employer and a great place to work.
2. Optimize the Warehouse Layout
Before any holiday orders arrive, take a walk through the facility to ensure each department is organized and configured to handle the incoming influx of orders. An inefficient layout can cause mistakes, delays, and worst-case scenario—wrong orders delivered to the customer.
Keep in mind that in addition to product demand, foot traffic and storage capabilities will be equally important. If you anticipate that specific products will be in higher demand than others, consider creating specific zones for those products to reduce risk of bottlenecks.
3. Lean on Technology
An efficient, modern-day warehouse uses a variety of technology that helps track time, personnel, incoming and outgoing shipments, and overall efficiency. Management teams often underestimate the time it takes to walk back and forth to computers and printers. What starts as a minute here and there can easily turn into hours wasted and profits lost. The US Census Bureau reports that $4.3 billion or 256 hours of labor are lost each year to wasted time. Integrating all-in-one mobile workstations that hold technology you already have on hand such as laptops, printers and scanners allow employees to move seamlessly through the warehouse with everything they need, maximizing efficiency and cutting down on wasted time and energy.
Companies that use mobile workstations report an increase picking rate of 30% and overtime decreased by 75%. Accuracy is a top priority any time of the year, but especially during the holiday surge. Consider implementing dimensioning technology to capture data and proportions of products so that shipping costs can be predicted more accurately. This system will scan parcels and immediately identify the best packaging options, enable direct-to-box picking, and reduce pick times by up to 10%. For every 100 packages shipped out per day with an average cost of goods is $15 per parcel, revenue increases by $150 per day or $37,500 a year. Additionally, warehouses using a dimensioning system that generates images on pick lists report an error reduction from 4% to 1%.
Even though the holidays feel far off, it’s never too early to start developing and implementing plans of action that will set up the company for long-term success. As we begin planning for the 2021 holiday season, think about the successes and failures of last year and use those lessons to empower your team for this year.
John O’Kelly is founder, president and CEO of Newcastle Systems, a provider of workplace mobility solutions.
