If you’re a manager of a warehouse, you know how quickly things can get out of hand. Boxes stacked in corners, missing pieces of inventory, incomplete sales tracking—there’s no end to the hurdles a warehouse operator must handle to keep everything together. But you can get ahead of those issues if you follow these steps for maintaining an organized inventory.
Step #1 – Decide on a Receiving Area
The goal is to always avoid clutter. You want to segment your warehouse so different tasks are completed at different zones. If there’s no specific zone for sorting new inventory, you may quickly find a big mess on your hands.
Warehouse managers are always concerned with the safety and organization of their floor. Make sure you have a receiving area tucked away, maybe near the back, and keep all the new items there as they are being sorted. Only once their locations have been decided should they leave the receiving area.
Step #2 – Organize Your Warehouse by What Sells Best
More than anything, it’s important your warehouse has some level of organization in its design. The layout of where the products are placed should make sense to you. One excellent way to organize a warehouse is by what’s selling best. Put the best-selling items near the front. This will make sure important merchandise is easily accessible to your staff and customers.
Step #3 – Label Every Product Using a Barcode Scanner
One of the most important steps for maintaining an organized inventory is to implement a barcode system. Tag each product with a sticker and a stock-keeping unit, or SKU, label. The sticker will name the product, while the SKU will give you a scannable code that connects to your digital inventory. Whenever the product gets moved, scan it, and that will inform the central inventory what is and isn’t in stock.
There’re so many benefits to using a barcode system for your inventory. Most importantly, it’ll give you the information you need to know which products are doing better than others.