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One of the most essential areas in a business is the warehouse, and proper maintenance of that warehouse is of the utmost importance. Not only does a clean warehouse ensure that your stock doesn’t become dusty, dirty, or contaminated, it also ensures that your employees don’t work in an unsafe environment. Below are some tips to keep your warehouse clean at all times.
Clean as You Go
There’s a lot of activity that goes on inside a warehouse all day and every day. While your employees might set aside some time to clean near the end of their shift, it’s far easier and more efficient if they tidy as they go. This helps keep the place clean and keeps the area safe from potential hazards. If they do have downtime outside of their breaks, rather than sitting around, your employees should take the time to clean where needed and ensure that everything is where it belongs. You can talk to your employees about making this standard practice in your warehouse. You may want to post the expectations on a sign in a visible area.
Regularly Clear Bins
People working in the warehouse should clear the bins routinely to prevent litter overflow. This prevents busy people from dumping trash and litter elsewhere, which could cause potential hazards and a definite inconvenience. Routine bin dumping also prevents employees from having to take extra time to clean later. Assign specific employees to take out full or nearly full bins at certain times. When you have people assigned to the task, it’s less likely to get overlooked.
Label Floors
Proper labeling is essential for the organization in a warehouse, and labeling your floors helps organize sectors and identify products. Detailed data and accurate records help workers access the products, saving a lot of time.
Make Cleaning Supplies Accessible
For the warehouse employees to keep the warehouse safe and clean, they must have access to the proper equipment and supplies. The longer employees have to search for supplies and equipment, the higher the chance that they will use something less effective to clean or that they won’t clean as much as they should.
Properly Maintain Your Building’s Roof and Exterior
If your warehouse’s exterior is in poor condition, it’s going to affect the interior as well. Your roof is one part of the exterior that you need to pay special attention to. A poorly maintained roof could result in leaks, temperature fluctuations, structural damage, and other issues. All of these could impact both your employees and the products and materials stored in the warehouse. If your roof is in need of maintenance, consider having it coated with spray polyurethane foam. This foam is waterproof and can protect your building from sun damage and other issues. You can talk to a commercial roofing company, like Everest Systems, about options for your warehouse roof.
Get a Mobile Yard Ramp
An important aspect of running a warehouse is loading and unloading products on a regular basis. The products are usually handled using forklifts and simple manpower. However, the task can be difficult when there aren’t a sufficient amount of ramps, or if there are none available at all. You can purchase a few mobile yard ramp systems that can be used anywhere on the interior or exterior of the warehouse. Keep in mind that the ramps can also be customized to accommodate the specific types of products that will be loaded and unloaded via them, such as designed with a custom size.
Use Software to Track Inventory
Manually keeping track of inventory items can lead to a lot of mistakes being made. For instance, your employees might miscount how many of each product is still available in the warehouse. The most modern way to keep track of your inventory is via software that can be installed on a computer. Each time products are shipped out of the warehouse, the number of items can be calculated into the software program. The features that are available will depend on the software that is chosen.
Insulate the Warehouse
One of the worst things that you can do is store your products in a warehouse that isn’t insulated. Even if the building is insulated, you should consider getting it inspected to ensure that the insulation is of a high quality. Poor insulation can lead to a large quantity of your products getting damaged when the temperatures outside are severe enough to affect the inside of the warehouse. Spray foam is the easiest method of insulating a building that is already constructed, and it is also of a high quality.
Since your entire business depends on what goes on in the warehouse, it’s important to keep the warehouse clean and organized for the sake of the products and the people working there. While a busy day at the warehouse can affect cleaning, the lack of cleanliness will affect the products within as well as the productivity, health, and safety of the workers.
Also, a business can easily lose customers by failing to keep their products stocked up, as customers will usually end up finding what they need at a different store. When you own a large building for storing inventory, it must be run in an organized manner just like the actual store. For instance, you might need to hire an entire crew to run various aspects of the warehouse. The following content explains a few of the things that should be considered for running a large warehouse.