Optimising Warehouse Layout & Design Delivers Profit Improvement

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The efficiency and storage capacity of any warehouse operation is dependent on its layout and design. Whether your company is in manufacturing or assembly, order fulfilment and shipping, a sound warehouse floor plan and design utilising all airspace will assist you to minimise costs and maximise productivity.

The first step to your warehouse design and layout planning process is to consider your needs, from space utilisation, inventory storage options to aisle layout and production area workflows. In addition, you need to keep your business’s inventory management systems front of mind, as your layout will impact your ability to manage inventory effectively.

The intent of improving any warehouse layout is to streamline operations, improve efficiencies to generate more revenue ultimately. Warehouse managers can find themselves stuck when trying to come up with and implement new solutions as they work within the confines of existing structures and layouts.

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To step back and take some time to look at the bigger picture can provide the way to move forward and ensure the warehouse is serving the needs of the business.

There are two approaches to start the optimisation process. Firstly, working closely with the warehouse manager, asking the question ‘what are your pain points?’

Those answers will serve as a guide to optimising warehouse layout.

The second relates to how managers are accustomed to keeping a keen eye on tracking inventory, a discipline central to the world of warehouse and distribution centres. But how often do you step back and take stock of your processes?

Understanding various components that make your operations work (equipment, employees and processes) can uncover potential workflow efficiencies and cost savings. At a base level that will include analysis of:

• How your product comes in, • How it’s handled within your warehouse, and • How it goes out

Reviewing how product moves through the warehouse or distribution centre, the shelving height, width of aisles, general load and heaviest load rates will directly impact optimising warehouse layout and workflows.

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Here are some considerations:

Product Touches One of the obvious and important ways to improve warehouse efficiency is to calculate the number of product touches that occur from the time the product arrives through to when it exits. Therefore, reducing the number of touches is vital to optimising warehouse efficiency.

Changing warehouse layout and design in itself is one of the best ways to reduce the number of touches. That solution can be changing the racking styles, the order of workflows and removing steps. Another solution can be changing racking systems to a customised conveyor style to provide a smoother, faster workflow while reducing touches and handling costs for repetitive tasks.

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AISLE WIDTHS Underutilised space and poor workflow occurs when the aisles are too narrow or too wide in warehouses. This is a common issue as companies inventory levels, and material handling requirements alter as the organisation grows.

As companies grow, it is important to review the existing infrastructure and its suitability to your evolving needs. For example, there are many smart warehouse storage racking systems such as push back spring rail, pallet flow, double deep, and more. They assist you in creating a more efficient warehouse layout, maximising aisle widths and lengths for the efficient fetching of products.

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Vertical and Air Space Vertical and air space are the most underutilised spaces in warehouse layout. If your warehouse has a 12-15-metre high roofline, but your racks are only 6-8 metres high, you have considerable space that is underutilised. As most warehouse operations are focused on what is occurring on the ground floor, this area is often considered out of reach or normal for warehouses.

There are numerous ways to better utilise the available space. This can be building higher shelving racks from endless customisable solutions and utilisation of lift equipment with the necessary reach and capability to handle those high areas.

Another option is to install a versatile and durable mezzanine that can add a second or even third level inside your facility.

Warehouse mezzanines can be used to create:

• New production or storage space • Stockrooms or locker rooms • Parts departments • Records storage • Modular in-plant offices

With rental costs per square metre at record high levels, going up is a very costeffective method of increasing your warehouse

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Choosing Your Warehouse Storage and Materials Handling Most warehouse operations, whether manufacturing, assembly, pick-pack-andship, or any combination of the three, require multiple storage options to establish efficient workflows. Considerations need to be given to the weight of the inventory that is being handled on-site. Is it a large volume of similar-sized pallets, bulky difficult to store items, high turnover of small items?

Often people consider the pallet racking option but are unaware of the varieties of pallet racking systems available today to support optimising warehouse layout.

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Options can include:

• Selective Pallet Racking - the ability to have access to every pallet at any time • Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking – Optimising space savings.

• Cantilever Racking - items that are bulky, awkward, irregularshaped, or long-length loads that are not easily managed in standing pallet racking systems • Double Deep Pallet Racking - provides greater pallet depths, reducing the number of aisles and permits a high-density system for large, slow-moving or bulk item storage.

• Satellite Pallet Racking - is a great option for high-density storage if you have limited staffing levels • Push Back Spring Rail Pallet Racking - removes wasteful aisles to achieve double density pallet storage from your existing racking.

• Drive-In Pallet Racking - space-saving storage solution is ideal for highly organised operations with larger volumes of pallets per SKU and storing large quantities of similar products • Pallet Live - enables ultra-high dense storage of palletised goods, fewer aisles and increased efficiency

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The Bottom Line Optimising warehouse layout and design starts with understanding your problems and warehouse processes. What tasks are to be performed within your facility and the volume of inventory being handled. From there, an efficient design can be developed to serve your businesses current and future needs.

When you invest the time and effort to create an efficient warehouse layout, you open the doors to saving time, money, and reducing hassles for years to come.

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