Your warehouse digitization journey, step-by-step

Optimizing your warehouse should be based on your current warehouse situation. Here, it’s important that you pay attention to issues such as:

Warehouse layout
Types of shelving used, location size variations, hallway widths, and dependencies among different warehouse areas.

Product characteristics
Weight, volume, fragility, and sales patterns.

Warehouse automation
What types of automation exist, how are they used today, how should they be managed in conjunction with the manual areas, and is the fill rate satisfactory?

Order combinations
What are the order combinations like, and what are the variations in order combinations over time?

Inventory check
What is the extent of inventory variances, and how much time is spent on inventory counting?

Process support
In what manner, and to what extent, are the current storage processes supported?

You may already see opportunities for improvement once you’ve gone over these points. They are important inputs for a more in-depth analysis of your warehouse.

A warehouse analysis is based on your current warehouse setup and spots untapped potential. Furthermore, it is a starting point for prioritizing improvement measures and choosing applicable solutions.

We apply simple tools to map warehouse and production processes. Our analysis covers the warehouse and comprises:

• Storage equipment, capacity, and use
• ABC analysis
• Warehouse strategy and management concepts
• Picking, storage, and replenishment strategies
• KPIs and performance management
• Digitization
• Automation of storage areas

We create a structure, provide an overview, and perform calculations. This gives you a good fact-based basis for decisions. We also provide advice and guidance on how to implement the recommended solutions.

We recommend making a return on investment (ROI) calculation that shows how much each change contributes and when the investment is expected to make its money back. This provides insights into which changes are worthwhile and whether the investment will pay off.

The ROI analysis can be divided into a number of focus areas, such as: employee efficiency, error rate, facilities, equipment, and transport costs.

Employee efficiency
Labor costs represent a large proportion of total storage costs. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the time spent on each warehouse process and assess whether tasks or handling can be improved or completely removed.

Error rate
Picking errors and other errors are a consequence of the quality of warehouse processes. Rectifying errors is associated with surprisingly high costs and a lack of earnings, due to dissatisfied customers.

Facilities and equipment
Storage facilities and equipment must be used to the best extent possible. What was optimal yesterday will not necessarily be the optimal setup tomorrow. This may relate to the warehouse layout, the locations of goods, and the management of locations to ensure the maximum filling rate.

Transportation costs
Transportation costs are partly beyond the control of warehouse management. However, in addition to negotiating transport agreements, costs can also be lowered through the consolidation of orders and better packaging solutions.

The ROI calculation provides you with a better basis for assessing and prioritizing investments. At the same time, it provides greater knowledge of where to focus to realize the changes and gains on which the ROI is based.