How To Reduce Warehouse Costs

For the last few years, the cost of running a warehouse has been steadily increasing. This has led to business owners looking at creative ways of reducing running costs, without compromising on output or efficiency. In this guide, we have outlined a number of different warehouse costs and how you can reduce them, so your company can be as streamlined as possible.

What Warehouse Costs Are Owners Experiencing?

Warehouse costs will differ based on the facility, amount of storage space available and services you provide.

The most common costs are associated with handling, storage space, rent and labour. As costs associated with warehouses increase nationally, we’ve listed our 3 top tips on how to minimise the negative impact of this rise below.

How Do I Reduce Warehouse Costs?

1. Optimise your storage

As the warehouse optimisation experts, we know how to make your warehouse as efficient as possible. Efficient aisles are essential to making navigation a smoother process for machinery and workers. The quicker a product can be located in a warehouse, the sooner it can be loaded on a truck for distribution.

Learn the dimensions of your forklifts and machinery needed for every type of product, as this will help you sort inventory by aisle dimension – leading to a reduction in the width of inefficient aisles wherever possible.

If you are looking to expand your operation, you could consider installing a mezzanine floor. This can increase your storage capacity without needing to move to another facility – a considerable cost saving.

2. Reduce your labour-related costs

Labour is a huge part of the operating cost of any warehouse. Reducing employees’ pay is not an option, however reducing their dwell time will improve overall profits. Time is money and having inefficient workers is a huge time-sink and therefore a waste on spend.

You can fix this issue by implementing a better employee training programme, retaining experienced workers and promoting a positive company culture. Having an engaged workforce will improve your productivity and reduce your warehouse costs.

3. Identifying and preventing theft

The hard truth for warehouse owners, is that theft is a growing and widespread issue. Theft can lead to the replacement of employees (training new staff) and inventory diminishment, which in turn will increase your costs.

To learn more about how you can prevent theft in a warehouse, you can read our in-depth article here.

Summary

Reducing costs in your warehouse facility is an important consideration for 2022 and beyond. With costs rising nationally, it is more important than ever to ensure your warehouse is running as efficiently as possible. At Oakway Storage, we work with you to keep your facility in perfect shape – speak to our team today to find out more.