WarehouseWarehouse teams are struggling to keep people, stock, and tasks moving
We have worked with a number of warehouse operators throughout the UK, across fulfilment centres, distribution hubs, storage sites and dispatch teams, and find that many of them are struggling to keep things running like clockwork.
Here are some of the issues they face:
- Keeping picking, packing and dispatch on schedule
- Redeploying staff between zones to meet demand
- Verifying hours, overtime and breaks
- Understanding where time is being lost across the warehouse
- Ensuring people are licenced to perform certain tasks
- Tracking important or high-value assets, pallets or equipment
With the constant pressure to move goods faster, more accurately, and at a lower cost, warehouses struggle when small delays, staffing gaps or customer complaints occur.
Warehouse operations depend on constant movement
The success of your warehouse relies on you being able to receive goods, store them, pick and pack them, load them and dispatch them with high speed and accuracy. But the warehouse floor often feels like it is trying its hardest to push against this – a busy, physical environment where people, pallets, vehicles, stock, scanners, forklifts, cages and deadlines are all moving at once.
When you lose control or visibility of what's happening, your costs spiral, productivity drops, and you risk running a dangerous operation where incidents or injuries are just waiting to happen.
Lost Productivity
- Slow Redeployment. When one area becomes overloaded, managers need to know who is nearby and available to help.
- Stock Movement. When workers are blocked by congestion or poor stock availability, it has a butterfly effect on other tasks.
- Excessive Movement. Poor shift planning can lead to excessive walking, waiting or searching, reducing order fulfillment rates.
Higher Costs
- Payroll Waste. When hours, overtime, or breaks are incorrectly recorded, warehouse payroll runs with up to 3% as waste.
- Agency Costs. Being unable to efficiently deploy your existing workforce increases reliance on expensive agency staff.
- Admin Burden. Your supervisors often need to work extra hours finding cover, verifying timesheets or searching for stock.
Staff Safety
- Vehicle Risks. Staff working around forklifts or loading bays need access restrictions, strong visibility, and fast support.
- Emergency Response. During an incident or evacuation, managers need to know who is where in the warehouse.
- Lone Worker Risk. You need to know who is working alone, where they are, and when they were last verified as safe.
What successful warehouses do differently
Instead of adding more supervisors, increasing overtime, or hiring more agency staff, the most successful warehouses are giving their teams advanced technology that reveals data from the warehouse floor, and helps them make rapid decisions as well as planning more strategic shifts.
They are doing this by answering important questions such as:
- Who is on site right now
- Which zone is each person working in
- Which areas are falling behind or becoming congested
- Who is nearby and able to support an urgent task
- Where is each vehicle or piece of important equipment
- How much time is being lost travelling around the warehouse
- How do actual hours compare with scheduled hours
- How many hours are being paid but not worked
- Which teams perform better than others
Having this information easily available helps you to run tighter shifts, move people to the right areas, keep restricted zones restricted, reduce overheads, and protect your staff.
