How much walking is your warehouse team doing from one industrial shelf to the next? While the exercise might be good for them, it’s not good for your profits. The more time your team spends walking products around your warehouse, the more it costs you to send out each item. The time employees spend walking across the warehouse is time they aren’t able to focus on the next task, which is probably something that needs to get done in order to make money.

It’s also wasting human energy. There are some things that people can do in a warehouse setting that machines cannot; moving products from industrial shelves isn’t one of them. Automation and conveyor systems can be used to move products around and you won’t have to pay them a wage to do it. Putting your human labor to work on other projects that require a human touch is a better use of your workforce. Plus, the more time you have your team handling a product, whether they are moving it across the warehouse or putting it into a box, the more room there is for error. That hurts your profits in returns and damaged merchandise.

So what can you do? There are plenty of options to help your warehouse cut down on travel time across the warehouse floor. Here are some tips from RMH Systems:

• Reconfigure your industrial shelves. If your shelving is a long way from your packing area and doesn’t have to be, move it. Move shelves around to maximize your space and make the least amount of travel time possible for your team.
• Move products on your shelves. If there are items that are commonly picked together, move them closer together on the shelves. This speeds up pick time and gets products out the door faster, too.
• Use a different system for picking. If you have a large warehouse, consider breaking it up into zones and having different teams stick to one zone. That way they don’t have to walk clear across the warehouse to fulfill an order; instead, they’ll send the box to the next zone for the team to pick.
• Automate your warehouse. Have a conveyor system move products instead of having your labor force do it! It may be a bigger investment upfront, but in the long run, it will pay off in a big way.
• Ask for employee input. They are the ones out on the warehouse floor every day, so ask their opinions! They may have suggestions you’d never thought about that can help speed up your pick and pack lines and cut down on travel time within the warehouse.

RMH Systems is here to help, too! We’ll make sure you have the right configuration for your industrial shelves and other warehouse and materials handling equipment. Give us a call today and let’s talk about how to help your warehouse become more efficient. Get in touch with us over the phone or by contacting us through our website. We’ll connect you with a project manager who can help!