If you’re looking to reduce your warehouse costs, you’ll be amazed at how many quick and simple strategies you can employ to minimise waste and reduce unnecessary spending through greater efficiencies.

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Finding the right partner

Many businesses are now looking to bring in specialist warehouse partners to assist with their supply chain operations. These individuals can provide distribution services and warehousing to deliver and store business goods. This can ultimately save money in the long run if logistics and warehousing is not a core competency of your business.

By handing off the daily operational and logistical work, your staff can focus on their core business or be realigned to business activities with greater value.

Strip out costs

Review your warehousing cost base. For example, could you buy comparable quality pallets at a cheaper price by sourcing a new preferred supplier. For pallet racking in Ireland, companies such as https://www.rackzone.ie/pallet-racking can assist. It could be worth bringing in a supply chain consultant to review your operation and provide bespoke advice. A new perspective and structured review approach can be invaluable in identifying areas where waste is occurring or where there are steps in your processes that could be re-engineered.

Look at location

Your warehouse location is crucial to delivery success and cost management. Your ideal scenario is to have your warehouse situated near customers and production facilities in order to cut lead times and transport costs. A warehouse with its own vans or trucks is also excellent for rapid delivery solutions, and you’ll want to use one that has an established and successful working relationship with a local UPS or FedEx partner to cut costs for expediting and premium freight.

Equipment

New equipment can seem like an unwanted expense, but out-of-date kit will cost you money in the longer term. You should definitely have bar coding equipment and scanners along with mobile equipment if possible to facilitate tracking and optimise picking sequences. Material handling kit and storage are also key areas for investigation, so make sure your storage space is in line with your needs and that your racks are configured correctly to the materials you store when you pay by floor square feet.

What other approaches will you use to ensure your warehouse is cost competitive and running as efficiently as possible?