Why and how can you improve your warehouse management?

Warehouse management means warehousing and preparing products for sale, over a more or less long circuit.

And in a world where consumer spending is exploding, particularly with e-commerce, and where the end customer is always in a hurry and more demanding, warehouse management is becoming an essential lever for performance and competitiveness in the supply chain.

What's more, by optimising the organisation of your warehouse and the management of your stocks, you can drastically reduce your costs while increasing your productivity. In short, it's a double win.

Discover the challenges of good logistics management and some tips for improving it.

See all software Warehouse Management

Warehouse management: definition

Warehouse management includes the concepts of :

• item management
• stock management
• storage management (locations)
• order preparation management
• management of dispatch and transport of goods to recipients.

The aim is to achieve the best possible organisation of space, storage and goods flows.

How does a warehouse work?

A warehouse is a building where goods are stored for more than 24 hours, before being sent to an adjoining logistics platform for preparation and dispatch.

Warehouses are generally used by :

• industrial manufacturers
• import-export companies
• wholesalers
• hauliers
• customs, etc.

They contain shelving, also known as racks, which hold pallets and parcels from several manufacturers or suppliers, before continuing on to other manufacturers, traders, shops or end customers.

☝️ A warehouse may have several owners and be managed by a subcontracted logistics service provider, who handles storage, picking and sometimes transport.

The importance and challenges of good warehouse management

Good organisation, via an effective warehouse management system, has many advantages, to ensure that teams perform better and, in turn, guarantee quality of service and customer satisfaction.

Good warehouse management means you can :

• better management and control of stock, to anticipate shortages and wastage, as well as health and safety risks, depending on the specific nature of the products;
• offer a better service, with faster order preparation and no errors or breakages;
• optimise the percentage of premises occupied as much as possible, and therefore reduce storage costs;
• to organise storage in such a way as to make it easier for handlers to find their way around, to make their movements more fluid and to avoid any risk of accident;
• Leave enough space for operations such as loading and unloading goods, and moving trolleys and other equipment;
• save time on internal operations such as transport and picking.

See all software Warehouse Management

How do you manage a warehouse?

There is no ONE method of organising warehouses- it all depends on the products you store, their number and your processes - but here are a few universal tips.

1 - Define a strategy based on management needs

There are large and small warehouses, and each will have different management needs, which can be prioritised as follows, according to logistics expert Raja:

As well as having a large enough warehouse, you need to be well organised, and that means recruiting the right people.

For large warehouses with a high flow of goods, you'll need professionals dedicated to each stage of your processes:

• warehousemen, who receive, list and put away goods;
• Stock managers, who organise incoming and outgoing flows;
• Order pickers, who pick, sort, pack and check goods before dispatch;
• logistics managers, who supervise the whole operation, i.e. warehouse management as a whole.

2 - Structuring your warehouse layout

Define a specific area for each operation, as shown in the diagram above:

• Receiving goods,
• moving the goods to the storage area (conveyor zone),
• storage area,
• allotment,
• kit assembly,
• preparing orders,
• dispatch of goods.

Not only does each area have its own function, but each of them must be able to communicate with the next in a logical way, to reduce flows to a minimum.

Example: the reception area should be close to the storage area, and the order preparation area close to the dispatch area.

☝️ Don't neglect signposting to make it easy for handlers to find their way around. Number products and dedicated areas, and if necessary, draw up a signposted logistical route to make it easier for them to find their way around the warehouse.

3 - Optimise your storage area

Another piece of advice: it's a question of optimising space, not sticking all the goods one on top of the other. It's essential that the products and zones are legible, so that you don't waste time looking for goods and retrieving them.

It is also important to store goods according to their turnover rate and their specific characteristics:

• the most frequently ordered products are the easiest to access and the closest to the preparation area;
• the heaviest and bulkiest products are naturally stored downstairs, which also eliminates the risk of injury;
• fresh and perishable products are kept in a well-defined area for health checks;
• chemical or hazardous products are obviously stored separately.

4 - Cross-docking

In traditional supply chain management, the warehouse is the stage between the supplier and the seller. It is used to store the goods until the order is placed: it is therefore a discontinuous, asynchronous flow.

In the case of cross-docking, the warehouse is merely transitory. As soon as the goods arrive, the warehouse manager receives them and dispatches them directly to the final recipient, without having to store them, put them on racks or prepare them.

This is an economic practice that is particularly common in mass distribution and among wholesalers, for example, who manage large volumes in a continuous flow.

It still requires a certain amount of warehouse management, particularly in terms of planning, but it is a cost-effective organisation that eliminates the intermediate stage of product storage.

5 - Provide a pleasant and safe working environment

As well as the quality of the organisation, both in terms of space and human resources, there's another factor to consider: a pleasant and safe working environment.

You already know the essentials:

• limit the carrying of heavy loads
• limiting unnecessary travel.

Here, the quality of the equipment and the clear definition of work processes are essential.

Forklift trucks, conveyors, pallet trucks and even barcode scanners have a lot to contribute to optimal warehouse management, which also involves motivating your staff and ensuring their well-being!

A WMS (Warehouse Management System) solution is becoming an increasingly essential tool for intelligent warehouse management, particularly for automating stock management. This solution offers a number of key functions to optimise the basic functions of warehouse management and the work of your staff in a simple and intuitive way.

🛠️ Here are two tools:

Generix WMS, which is aimed at manufacturers, omnichannel distributors and logistics service providers alike.

It is particularly well-suited to the e-commerce sector and to fast-growing warehouses with high organisational requirements:

• optimise warehouse organisation (slotting) and storage costs,
• calculating and facilitating movements between different areas of the warehouse,
• replicate a model that works, making it easy to create and manage a new warehouse in just a few weeks.

Odoo Inventory is stock management software for companies of all sizes. Equipped with a host of features and an ergonomic interface, the solution facilitates the logistics processes within your company with :

• a global view of warehouse stocks to avoid stock-outs and manage the constant replenishment of your products,
• the integration of a barcode scanner system to easily track your products and optimise your inventory,
• automated transfers between warehouses and delivery points.

To find out more about other warehouse management software, take a look at our directory.

How do you optimise your warehouse management? What methods and tools do you use?