To make manufacturing warehousing more efficient and more profitable, materials must be managed proficiently. Ensuring a well-structured warehouse, correct stock management and shipments, and well-organised handling can all go a long way in improving efficiency of your manufacturing processes and ultimately the bottom line of your business. Below are top the top 4 material handling tips to make manufacturing warehousing more efficient.

1. Start at receiving

When materials or completed products are received, it is important to complete inventory and stocking in one step right from the beginning. Over-handling of products not only costs time and ultimately money, but leaves room for error. Barcodes and barcode scanners are a good way to receive products and update your inventory in real-time to your ERP.

Warehouse management technology can plan out stock and tell the user where an item needs to go. This can drastically reduce the time taken for stocking as well as human error.

2. Warehouse organisation and structuring

Imagine a grocery store where all of the products were placed randomly. Your shopping would take forever. The same can be said for your warehouse – good organisation is critical for efficient processing and operations.

Make sure to keep your materials and products in an order that works for your business – it can save a great deal of time and money when filling orders or doing stock counts.

3. Optimise Picking

Most warehouses complete multiple picks for multiple orders at once. Having a streamlised system to do this is the best way to increase efficiency and accuracy.

A good warehouse management system can automate bulk picking lists from multiple orders to optimise efficiency.

Additionally, incorrectly picked items should be returned immediately to ensure there is no shortage for other picks. Not being able to find an in-stock item on a shelf can slow down the order-fulfillment process completely.

4. Dispatching and Shipping the Correct Items

Barcodes and barcode scanners can go a long way to improving the efficiency of dispatch and shipping. A good warehouse management system should allow a user to scan an item for shipping and check it against an order to ensure that the correct items are loaded onto the truck. This reduces the risk of shipping incorrect items.

TransLution™ Software utilises barcode scanners to send materials and warehouse data directly to your business ERP.  Click here to read more about how TransLution™ Software can improve your manufacturing warehousing, or please contact us for a demo.