Each week, we share tips on how to set up your warehouse as a newcomer. You’ll get advice on structure, automation and the physical setup of your warehouse. Today is part 5 in the automation category.

Tip 5: Never retype anything

If you run a webshop, your customer already enters their address and order details. That means you should never have to retype address information or product data—not even for a shipping label or an invoice. Retyping is a waste of time.

Connect all the systems you use so that data is transferred automatically. When you start automating, make it your goal to (almost) never have to retype any information.

Do you also receive orders by phone or email? Make sure you only need to enter them once and that picklists, packing slips and invoices are generated automatically. Your stock levels should update automatically too.

Tip 6: Use a WMS

Life becomes a lot easier with a WMS, like Picqer ;-) WMS stands for Warehouse Management System. In other words, a system to manage your warehouse. If you choose a ready-to-use WMS, you’ll instantly cover many of the earlier automation tips. No more retyping, and you’ll always know exactly what’s in stock.

Using a WMS can save you at least 15 minutes per order, not even counting the benefits it brings for purchasing and internal communication. A WMS also helps ensure that “everyone can do everything,” as mentioned in Tip 3.

Our previous tips

• Tip 1: Make sure everyone knows the process
• Tip 2: Complete each order in one go
• Tip 3: Reduce exceptions
• Tip 4: Automate everything

You can also download all tips at once in our book A warehouse to be proud of.

Today we’re launching the new Picqer Help Center. On this site you'll find answers to many questions you may have about Picqer. It’s designed to help new users get started quickly and to help existing users discover new features. We’re starting with 40 articles and will add new topics every week.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share lots of tips on how to set up your warehouse as a newcomer. You’ll get advice on structure, automation and the physical setup of your warehouse. Today is part 4 in the automation category.

Automate everything

Automate as many tasks and actions as possible. Anything that repeats regularly can be automated, so do it. And do it as soon as you can, even if your business is still small.

Many small webshops think they don’t need much automation yet. Things aren’t that busy, and it’s fine to do some things manually. But unfortunately, they often forget to automate later on. When things do get busy, they end up just hiring more people or outsourcing the warehouse because they can no longer keep up.

But as a small webshop, you actually stand to benefit the most from automation. Here’s why:

• Automation is much easier in a small warehouse.
• It’s cheaper and leaves less room for errors.
• You have time early on to figure out what works best for you, before things get really busy.
• You’ll be able to grow more easily and handle busy periods with less effort, because each order takes less time to process.
• As a small webshop, you probably work with a small team. Automation helps you focus your time on more valuable tasks, like sales and marketing, instead of manually copying addresses.

That’s why we always say: “Automate as much as possible, as soon as possible.”

Tip 4: Always know your stock levels

Make sure you always know how many units of each product you have in stock, how many are already reserved for customers, and how many are still incoming. You need this information to inform customers about product availability and to place purchase orders.

You could keep track of it in an Excel sheet, but that’s not ideal. Excel doesn’t let you track history, it’s hard to use with multiple people, and your stock can’t update automatically when an order comes in. That means your stock list is almost always outdated.

Keep track of your inventory in a structured database that updates automatically when an order arrives. Most webshop platforms can do this to some extent. But many only track “available stock,” which is immediately reduced when an order comes in. That means you won’t know how much is actually on the shelf or how many items still need to be shipped. You’ll also likely miss information about outstanding purchase orders.

If you want to do it properly, you need an easy-to-use WMS that connects directly to your webshop. We’ll talk more about that in the next tip. Or try out how Picqer can improve your warehouse in the meantime.

Our previous tips

• Tip 1: Make sure everyone knows the process
• Tip 2: Complete each order in one go
• Tip 3: Reduce exceptions

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share lots of tips on how to set up your warehouse as a newcomer. You’ll get advice on structure, automation and the physical setup of your warehouse. Today is part 3 in the structure category.

Tip 3: Reduce exceptions

Exceptions go wrong more often and can cost a lot of money. So make sure you have as few exceptions as possible in your warehouse. We often hear that exceptions are key to great service, but even then you can reduce the number of exceptions or standardize them. The goal is that everyone knows exactly what to do in any situation, with as little improvisation as possible.

Make sure, for example, that you have a fixed shipping carrier and fixed rates for every type of shipment you handle. That way you won’t need to start making calls if you suddenly have a pallet shipment. Only ship pallets once or twice a month? Then make sure that process is also standardized and everyone knows exactly what to do. This reduces the need for coordination, lowers the chance of mistakes, saves time, and provides clarity for your customers.

You can also think about reducing the number of box sizes. It’s cheaper and easier to work with four box sizes instead of eight. Of course, this depends on the products you ship, but take a look to see if you can manage with fewer sizes. Maybe even your current three are already too many...

Also read Tip 1 Make sure everyone knows the process and Tip 2 Complete each order in one go.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share lots of tips on how to set up your warehouse as a newcomer. You’ll get advice on structure, automation and the physical setup of your warehouse. Today is part 2 in the structure category.

Tip 2: Complete each order in one go

Sometimes it seems convenient to do everything in batches: first print all picklists, then collect all products from the shelves, then pack everything in boxes, and only at the end of the day create the shipping labels.

Unfortunately, especially in small warehouses, this is a false sense of efficiency. You often handle the same products and boxes multiple times and need more space to lay out ongoing orders. You also have to read the same picklist over and over to see what needs to be done. These repeated steps and unnecessary movements end up costing more time than batching saves.

Set up your process so that you grab one picklist, collect the products, pack them in a box, mark the picklist as complete in the software, create the shipping label and stick it on the box. Make sure you complete the entire order in one go so you can immediately set it aside for the shipping carrier. We’ve introduced this method in many warehouses, and it has led to more calm and greater efficiency.

An added benefit is that your warehouse remains flexible. You can keep up with incoming orders throughout the day. And if something interrupts your work, only untouched orders pile up—many others will already be fully finished.

Also read Tip 1: Make sure everyone knows the process