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There's no denying that your warehouse plays a critical role in your business. As one of the mission-critical components of your operations, your warehouse must run as efficiently as possible.

Have you determined that your warehouse operations aren't as slick as you'd hoped, even though you've got the best teams working in it? If the answer's yes, the good news is that you can take some actionable steps to improve things.

Take a look at the following tips, tricks, and ideas to help you run a smoother warehouse operation by making a few changes and improvements:

Make Interior And Exterior Floors Level

Firstly, ensuring that all interior and exterior warehouse flooring is level makes sense. For example, transporting some boxes or crates on a hand truck should be effortless and without traversing uneven or broken ground.

Consider opting for level resin-coated concrete flooring with expansion joint solutions from brands like Watson Bowman Acme to make your warehouse flooring both level and easy to clean. It may seem trivial, but uneven ground can cause delays and injuries.

Optimize The Storage And Office Layout

Next, you should review the overall layout of your storage and office facilities within your warehouse. It might surprise you to learn that many warehouses aren't utilizing their space efficiently.

In those cases, they can't store much inventory, which likely results in higher costs elsewhere within the company's distribution chain.

Consider hiring a commercial architect like HTG Architects to help create a more efficient layout for your goods storage and office areas.

Upgrade To A New Inventory Control System

One unfortunate way businesses lose significant sums each year is by having no proper grasp on their inventory. They may often order more items than they need from suppliers or purchase goods that seldom sell quickly.

It's a good idea to have a system that gives you real-time details of inventory movements within your warehouse. The way to achieve that goal is by investing in an inventory management solution like Katana.

Make It Easier To Recycle

It's no secret that warehouses produce a lot of waste each day. Your company may have processes in place to reduce wastage, but it's impossible to have zero waste in any warehouse environment.

Introducing practical recycling facilities in your warehouse makes sense to ensure that most of the waste generated doesn't end up in a landfill site somewhere.

One example might be to have a couple of balers that compress and combine cardboard and plastic waste, making it easier to bulk-recycle all warehouse waste. 

Introduce Energy-Saving LED Lighting

Finally, upgrading to energy-saving LED lighting is one of the best improvements any business can make in its warehouse. LED lights are bright, use significantly less electricity than other lighting, and don't generate much heat.

Moreover, you can typically retrofit LED lighting upgrades in existing bulb and tube holders, meaning such upgrades won't cost a fortune.

Conclusion

The above is by no means a complete list of things you can do to make your warehouse more efficient, but it provides a solid starting point to implement improvements and changes.