When it comes to running a business, one of the most important aspects is storage. Unless you are running an online business that doesn’t deal with physical products, you are going to need a place to store your goods.
If you are reading this article, you have probably realized that storing products for your business can be a nightmare if you don’t know what you are doing. This article will cover six ways that you can improve your storage space for your business, ranging from consulting with an expert to using racking systems.
Consult an Expert
If you have a new business or you are new to storing goods or products for your business, one of the best things that you can do is consult an expert in storage. This might come as quite a surprise to you, but there are many different ways that you can store your products, depending on what they are.
Companies like BiGDUG, for example, will not only help with all of your industrial storage equipment needs, but they will also collaborate with you to find unique solutions for your business’s storage needs to develop a strategy to keep your storage efficient and organized.
Make Use of Vertical Space
The second method on this list that you can use to improve the storage for your business would be to capitalize on the vertical space that you have available. If you are new to storage, you might be thinking that storing your goods or products horizontally is a good idea.
This would be true if you don’t have a lot of products, but when you begin to expand, you’ll need to open up storage space, and this can be done by using shelving, for example. By using shelving and other vertical storage methods, you can maximize all of the space at your disposal.
Use Racking Systems
The next tip on this list and a very common method that many businesses use in order to improve their storage is using racking systems. A rocking system typically uses pallets, along with efficient pallet wrapping equipment, in order to stack bulk goods vertically to maximize storage space.
Even if your primary goods are things like coffee cups, these usually are stored in cardboard boxes which can be placed on pallets and then racked up. In other words, regardless of the type of product that you are using, you can still make use of a racking system to improve your storage space.
Labels and Categorization
One of the most important things that you will need to begin using if you want to improve the storage for your business is labels and categorization. Choosing a storage system and getting all of your products and goods packed and stored is one thing, but keeping track of where everything is, is something else entirely.
In order to ensure that you can make heads and tails of your storage in terms of where things are, how they can be accessed, and to reduce retrieval times, you are going to need to invest the time to create a proper labeling and categorization system.
Use a WMS
In addition to making use of labels and categorizing your products correctly, you are going to also want to use a warehouse management system or a WMS. The primary purpose of a warehouse management system is to improve your storage efficiency, much like using labels.
In addition to keeping track of where your products are, a warehouse management system can also provide real-time information about various stock levels and, most importantly, how you can better optimize storage locations as you expand your inventory.
Off-Site Storage
Finally, the last thing that you can do if you want to improve your storage capabilities for your business is to make use of off-site storage. Not every business has the facilities in order to store their goods or products, and many new businesses can’t afford to buy their own warehouse space.
If you don’t have the storage space or a warehouse of your own to store products, you’ll want to invest in off-site storage options. Conversely, you might have your own warehouse or storage space, but you have an excess of product. In this case, an off-site storage facility would be a perfect choice.
