According to statistics, the largest single cause of accidents in a warehouse is trips and falls, accounting for 25% of all employee injuries.
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Ensuring your space is well-organised will go a long way to ensuring employees don't become part of the accident statistics. If you can reduce costs at the same time, this is a massive plus for any business. One of the best ways for warehouse managers to reduce the costs of picking, packing and handling, and to improve health and safety, is through the use of reusable plastic storage containers.
The UK's largest companies wouldn't be able to run successfully if their warehouse wasn't organised effectively. The best-performing warehouses are able to keep their promise of services like next-day delivery and same-day shipping, thanks to the way their stock is organised with almost military precision.
Largest UK warehouses
The UK's two largest warehouse distribution centres are Amazon, based in Dunfermline, Scotland, and Shaw National Distribution Centre, in Oldham, Lancashire. Each warehouse has floor space of a colossal one million square feet - equivalent to the area of 14 full-size football pitches!
Amazon's site has more than 1,000 permanent employees and drafts in temporary staff for busy periods. The retail giant packs and delivers the majority of its orders from Dunfermline. Amazon reportedly handles an order every 64 seconds!
The reason they are able to offer such quick delivery is because their warehouse is organised well. Despite its massive size, the system is such that they can retrieve, pack and despatch items rapidly, thanks to efficient storage solutions and well-trained staff.
Shaw National Distribution Centre is the base for Shop Direct, which owns retail giants Littlewoods.com and Very.co.uk, as well as other brands. Originally, it opened as Littlewoods' distribution centre in 1979.
The truly enormous warehouse stores thousands of products ready for immediate despatch to online customers, as well as handling returns. With 1,250 staff at peak times, it’s the region's largest employer. The warehouse has also struck up a partnership with delivery company Yodel as one of its national sorting hubs.
Supermarket warehouse
Morrisons Distribution Centre, based in Sittingbourne, England, is housed in another huge warehouse, covering more than 900,000 sq. ft of floor space. In total, the supermarket giant has six UK distribution centres. Sittingbourne is one of the largest, with around seven miles of aisles for staff to walk round!
Responsible for delivering to 86 stores, as well as despatching products for Morrisons' online order centre in Erith in London, the Sittingbourne warehouse has extra stock to send to other nearby warehouses at Willow Green and Latimer - so technically, it delivers to a further 145 supermarkets through these distribution centres.
Sittingbourne is served by around 200 Lorries and the team picks products for wholesale customers who are located as far away as Hong Kong. With such a huge customer base, it's vital that the cogs keep turning efficiently through the proper organisation of the warehouse.
Plastic storage for warehouses
So, what do all warehouses have in common? Well, they all rely on different types of plastic containers to store many kinds of item safely and securely.
Plastic storage is commonly used, with open-front order-picking containers providing plenty of different size options. The robust properties of polypropylene plastic containers make them ideal for order-picking, as they can be filled and emptied while stacked. The best containers feature heavy-duty handles with moulded grips for ease of handling.
Using containers with ventilated sides allows natural air-flow for the contents, keeping them fresher if they are perishable. They can be used as a racking replacement or for temporary or seasonal storage needs when the level of stock is likely to be changing continually.
Versatile storage
Plastic containers can be used for all kinds of products, including high valuables, books and newspapers and heavy duty items.
Airtight storage boxes protect delicate tech items from the effects of dust, damp and water.
As well as having the correct storage system in place, the warehouse employees play an important part in keeping their workspace organised. The key to fast and efficient order-picking is being able to identify the contents of each box quickly.
The labelling on the container or pallet must be clear and visible. Some Euro containers have textured areas, so temporary labels can be removed easily, without leaving a sticky residue.
Changing working practices
In some warehouses, items are taken to a central area for packing. The goods are picked, loaded on to a pallet, taken to the packing area, put into cardboard boxes and then loaded on to another pallet. Finally, this is stretch-wrapped ready to be shipped.
Save time on packing by adopting a new system. Cardboard boxes are time-consuming to put together, while pallet turntables take up a lot of warehouse space. Try loading items straight into reusable plastic stacking boxes while order-picking. The containers will interlock securely into each other when stacked, so only one or two turns of stretch-wrap will be needed to secure the load.
By creating a floor plan, selecting the most efficient shelving and storage solutions, labelling containers and shelves, maximising space utilisation and training staff properly, your warehouse will soon be running like clockwork.