5 Common Warehouse Problems & Solutions

Warehouse operations have their work cut out for them. People are purchasing items online now more than ever, supply chains face unforeseeable delays, workers are stressed, and managers are scrambling to meet quotas. As the pandemic continues to evolve, it is important to minimize fixable issues found in warehouses to maximize efficiency.

Here are five common warehouse problems and how you can work to solve them:

High Elevation: Workers in warehouses who need to reach high elevated racks sometimes rely on ladders and other self-help needs. This is can be a potential risk to safety in the workplace.
Narrow Aisles: Workers operating heavy machinery may find navigating merchandise in small, tight spaces to be a hindrance.
Leverage Automation: Many warehouses rely on manpower along with heavy machinery like forklifts to sort boxes and other items which can cause stress and exhaustion over time.
Higher Reach: Drawing upon our previous point, the more inventory your warehouse requires, the higher your merchandise will be stacked on top of high racks. Most order-picking machines cannot reach that height, and it can be dangerous to ask your workers to reach the high shelves on their own. Couple that with heavy inventory, and you’ve got a potentially dangerous situation on your hands.
Labor-Intensive: Finally, all of the problems above amount to exhausted workers and inefficient procedures. A failure to optimize your warehouse day-to-day work can create more problems than solutions, and most importantly puts your workers on blast to come up with better ways to transport inventory themselves.

For the 5 issues above, try these solutions:

For risks with high elevation, try investing in a safe-to-use mechanical elevation platform that’s operable and able to reach larger heights. This way, your employees can reach merchandise that’s stacked on top of shelves safely and can also stand firmly while elevated.
To help solve narrow aisle issues, consider spacing out inventory to leave room for machines to drive comfortably between shelves. This can be done by a) reducing current storage space or b) re-organizing current warehouse set-up to allow shelves to be placed with more space in between aisles.
Automating your warehouse procedures can yield high returns on saving time and effort from your warehouse employees. Simply install an automated cart device to sort and move packages and have workers oversee the process instead of making them do the entire procedure manually!
If you’ve already got an order-picker, great! But if that order picker is unable to reach higher shelves consider investing in one that can reach multiple heights easily. While your standard picker might do well for lower and mid-height storage, higher elevation ones cover a full range and can help keep the packing process safe!
Overall, consider transitioning to more machinery rather than manpower to save your workers some sweat! While looking at costs for machines can be daunting, there’s no end to the return of investment these forklifts, picking, and other elevation tools will give to your warehouse!

5 Common Warehouse Problems & Solutions Infographic Download

In addition to these solutions, consider switching to AirSaver to help on both storage space and shipping concerns. Our machines produce air pillows that function as a bracing void-fill material that are both light-weight and easy to operate. Our air-pillows are a top choice for any company looking to save time on shipping costs due. Our void-fill materials are reliable and ensure your merchandise are safely transported during shipping.

Best of all, our sleek air pillow machines are compact and take up little space within your warehouse as compared to large rolls of packing paper or huge boxes filled with messy peanuts. Simply place our patented machines near an outlet or extension cord and watch as seamless air-pillows conveniently print in ready-to-go packets for less time spent on organizing items within packages!

Take note that both of our ASF2 and ASFX machines are compact in design and take up little space within your warehouse as compared to large rolls of packing paper or huge boxes filled with messy peanuts. Simply place our patented machines near an outlet or extension cord, plug it in, and watch as it inflates and generates air-pillows that are ready-to-go!