Workplaces like factories and warehouses are unlike your typical working environment. These are places of industry where things are manufactured, stored, and sent out to customers in a way that facilitates the vast and complex system we like to call the supply chain. While undoubtedly vital to economies all around the world, they pose specific challenges that require innovative thinking and solutions. Perhaps the most challenging is ensuring that the space is safe enough for employees to work without hindrance or worrying that they may need to activate their workers’ compensation soon. Developing a system where you’re able to store anything that is yet unneeded or ready to ship is a great way to ensure that you remove as much clutter from the shop floor as possible and create a safe flow where employees are able to move and work freely. This post will explain a selection of reasons as to how installing the right storage systems in these kinds of workplaces can go a long way in reducing injury and boosting efficiency.

Practical Storage Reduces Inventory Loss

While cash flow might be the lifeblood of any business when it comes to accounting, inventory is the lifeblood of companies in the practical sense. The issue is that without adequate storage solutions, inventory has a habit of going walkabouts. By investing in the right ways to store your valuable items of inventory, whether they be a finished product waiting to be sent to a customer or the raw materials needed to create a product, you can ensure that they are all easily accounted for. You can achieve this task in numerous ways, either with the use of wire security cages that include a lockable door or with a basic set of shelving that is set up in such a way as to keep everything in order. Not only will this type of organization allow you to reduce waste and the possibility of having to discipline employees who have sticky fingers, but it also makes the job of inventory management, in general, far less complex. When you know where every item is placed, you are better able to keep tabs on your financial situation. 

Organized Inventory Improves Operational Efficiency

As we touched on in the last point, when you keep your inventory organized, you will significantly enhance your overall organization. This is accomplished by the simple mantra that everything has its place, and everything is in its place. If items are left all over the place or in confusing locations, nobody will know where to go and acquire them when they’re needed. In a smaller enterprise, this might not cause too many issues, but the larger you become, the more of an impact it can have. When you’re dealing with large numbers of SKUs or part numbers, you need a way to document where everything is. You can combine your storage solution with a dedicated inventory application or spreadsheet that notes where everything is placed. This enables members of your team to take a quick look at the master sheet, head to the site that is logged down, retrieve the item, and then note that they’ve taken a certain number of items out of inventory. This will keep things ticking along nicely and eliminate any bottlenecks that can come about from your staff running around without knowing where anything is.

Efficient Storage Maximizes Available Space

Whether you rent or have bought your business premises matters not. What does matter, though, is that you’re making full use of the facility so that there is no wasted space. Wasted space isn’t just costly, but it can also cause a decrease in efficiency, as no one knows where to go, and if the space is large enough, it can even cause people to get lost as they move throughout the facility. If you make an effort to set up the correct ways to store your stuff, you can ensure that every inch of available space is being utilized to the fullest extent.

Reduces The Risk Of Workplace Accidents

This point applies to both non-existent storage and poorly designed solutions, but we will start with the former. If you leave things lying around, sooner or later, somebody will bump or trip over them and possibly injure themselves badly. This really isn’t something you want to deal with, as it means you will have an injured employee who is taking time off work, the possibility of a lawsuit, and a decrease in employee morale. As an employer, you have an obligation to your team to ensure that they’re able to work in a safe environment that is as free from hazards as possible. And as you might guess from the topic of this post, erecting various forms of storage solutions is one way to fulfill this responsibility. When it comes to storage that has been set up in a ramshackle manner, this creates an entirely new set of issues that will almost certainly involve litigation if someone is injured as a result. Consequently, you want to make sure that any storage you have erected has been set up to the highest possible standard and using the correct techniques. You should also avoid overloading things like shelving to prevent the entire thing from collapsing and wreaking havoc. 

Adequate Shelving Supports Heavy Loads (While Keeping Access Straightforward)

We will follow on from the last point of the previous paragraph, which was related to shelving. Shelving is a great way to achieve a fantastic amount of organization without committing to more expensive options. While they might not have similar advantages (like being able to keep things locked away), they enable businesses with lots of inventory to stash things in a methodical manner and keep everything running smoothly. As long as you have installed the shelving according to the manufacturer’s guidelines and avoid overloading them, they can often be stacked long and high, creating a brilliant use of space that is accessible by humans and machinery.

Keeping your business organized is a key component of success, and you ought to start early on in your journey. By utilizing a range of storage solutions, you can keep everything nice and orderly and your team happy that they are able to retrieve things safely and efficiently.