Run an efficient warehouse: fewer exceptions, more flow
A well-organised warehouse is one thing. Running it smoothly every day is another.
A large purchase order comes in, a return flow you hadn't anticipated, or the person who knows everything calls in sick. You're immediately an hour behind.
In practice, the problem isn't the delivery, the returned product, or your colleague. The problem is that your warehouse lacks good processes, which makes it impossible to get into a nice flow together.
What we often notice in well-run warehouses is that employees are relaxed. You can see that their work is routine. Everyone has the right knowledge and tools to do the job well.
This article is about how to run your warehouse efficiently, so your team runs smoothly too. We help hundreds of webshops with warehouse software, and we see every day what works and what doesn't. These three tips make the biggest difference.
1. Document warehouse processes: get knowledge out of people's heads
Get knowledge out of people's heads and put it on paper. With standard processes, everyone knows what needs to be done, and everyone works the same way.
Process descriptions aren't just useful for better collaboration within your team; they're also a test of the process itself. Writing it down forces you to think about how you want things to work. You might discover things that are unclear or don't really belong in the process. And keep this in mind: if it's hard to explain, it's probably also hard to execute.
A process description doesn't need to be an extensive document. A simple overview of all the steps and who is responsible is enough. Write down all the steps, print them, and hang them near where the process is carried out.
Start with the trickier processes that currently live in just one person's head: receiving a purchase order, processing a return, how a new employee starts their first day. Those are the areas where dependency is greatest right now, where one sick colleague can set you back an hour.
Get inspired by this example for processing a purchase order.
2. Reduce exceptions in your warehouse
Every exception in your warehouse is an extra opportunity for error. A different shipping method for orders above a certain value. A different way of packing for an order from a second webshop. A return flow that works slightly differently for an exchange.
Exceptions feel like customer-friendliness. But exceptions mean you can no longer work on autopilot. They break your focus.
That doesn't mean you can never do something extra for your customer. What matters is making deliberate choices: if you do something, make it a standard process. If you don't do it, never do it. Being clear and consistent is better than being maximally flexible.
Three example situations to look at critically:
- Collection from your warehouse. Can someone pay by card? Can they also exchange items? If it happens five times a month, it's probably not worth the effort.
- Pallet shipments. Does a large shipment only come in twice a year? Then it's cheaper to ship it in multiple boxes than as a pallet shipment.
- Different packaging sizes. The more different packaging formats you use, the more decisions you have to make. And don't forget the storage space required.
3. Let colleagues from outside the warehouse shadow for a day
Everyone who occasionally works in the warehouse, including colleagues from marketing or customer service, should know how the processes work. Not as an obligation, but as an investment.
This has two benefits. First, it gives these colleagues a feel for the operation, which improves their own work. If customer service colleagues know how a return is processed, they can help customers more effectively. Second, it creates a flexible layer: when someone is sick or it gets busy, a colleague can easily step in without needing everything explained.
For example, plan a half-day rotation once a quarter. This only works if the processes are simple and clear enough for someone who doesn't carry them out daily, which immediately serves as a good test of the quality of your process descriptions from tip 1.
Get started
Hopefully these three tips have given you some inspiration. You don't need to have everything sorted at once. The most important thing is that you start.
Begin by writing out one process. Receiving a purchase order is a good choice: it's concrete, it's rarely written down, and the dependency is high. Test whether someone can carry it out based on your description alone.
If you do this regularly, within a few months you'll have a warehouse running in a great flow.
