Over the past two years, consumer behaviours have shifted dramatically, leaving many eCommerce businesses thriving.
If your business is growing, you will likely need extra warehouse space to accommodate new stock and increased customer demand.
Before you start shopping around for a larger space, it’s worth ensuring that you are making the most out of the space you currently have available. There are a whole host of ways to make the most out of the space that you are working with and expand your warehouse, without having to move to a new location.
If you’re looking to optimise your warehouse space, follow our top tips for expanding the available space effectively.
Calculate your total space
Before you can optimise and expand your warehouse space, you’ll need to know how much space you’re dealing with in total. This isn’t just floor space either!
Expand vertically
Are you making the most of every available space in your warehouse? And that doesn’t just mean floor space – you should be using your vertical space too. Extending your space virtually is an easy way to create more space. Pallet racks, carton flow racks, and mezzanines can all be used to build upwards.
Consider your current and future needs
Think carefully about your current and future needs. How much space do you need now – and how much are you likely to grow in the future? This will help you understand how much space you need to create and for how long that space should be sufficient.
Consider relocating items
A great way to make space for new and important products is to think about relocating items that you don’t necessarily need to access daily. By looking closely at the existing structure of your warehouse and storage solutions, you will be able to identify the products that are a priority and the items that aren’t.
You can then consider alternative storage solutions such as containers for the items that you don’t need day-to-day, such as those that are seasonal.
Alter aisle widths
Altering the aisle widths of your warehouse is a great way to increase your storage space, without having to find new premises. Reducing each aisle slightly will free up more space for additional aisles and storage, without impacting on accessibility and functionality.
Just make sure you don’t make your aisles too narrow as this may pose other issues in your warehouse, such as not being able to get pump trucks down the aisles.
Remove failed inventory
Many warehouses are full of failed inventory that is taking up much-needed space. And if you have products that have failed to sell, it’s better to dispose of these products than let them eat away at your available space.
Invest in a warehouse management system
Investing in a warehouse management system can help you automate a number of processes, and integrate them with the existing systems you use, from eCommerce platforms to couriers. This can help organise your warehouse and make it run more smoothly.
Why choose Optima?
Here at Optima, we have over 15 years of experience in designing, developing and implementing effective WMS solutions. Over the years we have worked with a vast range of companies, across a wide range of industries and sectors, in the UK, Europe and further afield.
If you have any questions about our systems, please get in touch with a member of our team.
