With warehouse space at a premium, it’s always important that it’s used effectively. Whether you own or rent your warehouse, the space itself costs money. As businesses grow, warehouses become more crowded, leaving business owners with the choice between moving warehouses or figuring out how to make their existing property work. Moving to a larger warehouse comes with its own expense, not to mention the likelihood of having to pay more for something larger. Because of that, figuring out how get more storage space in your existing warehouse is usually preferrable. On the other side of this is when a business moves to a new warehouse and wants to ensure its storage space is maximised; this prevents future problems and helps make sure a business can stay at their location as long as possible.

Because of all of this, it’s crucial that warehouses are used as effectively as possible. This isn’t as simple as trying to fit in as much pallet racking and shelving as possible. That’s a good start, but there’s a lot that can be done to achieve maximum storage space. When we’re optimising a warehouse, we usually start with the basics before moving onto more sophisticated methods of maximising spaces. Here are some of the basics.

First Understand Why Your Warehouse Is Full

The first step to solving a problem is understanding what that problem is. Again, solving warehouse storage problems isn’t just about adding more pallet racking or shelving; this might not actually be the problem.

A big problem we see is that a warehouse configuration that used to work no longer works. A main reason for this is that a business has grown over time. In the early days of the business, the warehouse may have seemed to have operated efficiently, but as things get busier, cracks begin to form. This is when a business needs to step back and examine its warehouse configuration.

It’s also worth looking at what sort of products are moving through the warehouse most frequently as well as how and where they’re stored in the warehouse. A lot of business never re-evaluate how everything is arranged and continue with business as usual, even if there business focus slowly changes over time. Different products may change in popularity over time and a once popular product may still be stored in a prime location while a now more popular product is at the back of the warehouse stored in the wrong type of pallet racking.

Going further on this, it’s also always worthwhile to consider seasonality. Many businesses experience seasonal shifts in operations, and it could be worthwhile to adapt to this. While rearranging a warehouse every few months probably isn’t the best idea, understanding the seasonal aspects of a business and how the warehouse can think ahead for changes may be beneficial.

Consider What Can Be Moved To Create Space

If a warehouse isn’t arranged in a good way, a lot of space can be lost. A warehouse layout seems pretty simple: put pallet racking or shelving into rows and leave space for packing and materials handling equipment, and that should do, but it’s not always the case.

Simply by rearranging pallet racking or reconsidering where something is stored, more storage space can be found. Sometimes it’s not a lot of space that can be found, but combined with other ways of increasing warehouse storage space, a warehouse can become much more usable.

Get The Right Kind Of Pallet Racking And Try To Reduce Aisles

Installing the right kind of pallet racking into a warehouse can be a great way to find more storage space. Sure, new or even used pallet racking is an added expense, but this is often less expensive than finding a new warehouse. Just like how a business may grow out their warehouse configuration, they may also grow out of their pallet racking. Selective pallet racking, for example, may be a good affordable option for a new business, but upgrading to a denser pallet storage option may be more suitable for a mature business.

The type of pallet racking needs to be considered when also looking at whether anything in the warehouse needs to be moved.

Also when considering the type of pallet racking being used and the overall configuration of the warehouse, it’s also worth considering whether aisle space can be reduced or whether the total amount of aisles between racking can be minimising. Fewer aisles means there’s more room for storage, after all. Something like narrow aisle pallet racking, for example, increases storage space while still having a high degree of selectivity by using specialised materials handling equipment to work within the smaller aisle widths. Meanwhile, a racking style like double deep pallet racking can reduce the total amount of aisles needed by storing pallets of the same SKU two deep.

See If You Can Go Up

The vertical space in warehouses is often under utilised, so it’s often a place to look if you’re trying to find more storage space.

If there’s space to make pallet racking go higher, use it, even if that means replacing materials handling equipment. Getting new forklifts is often less expensive than finding and moving to a new warehouse. If it supports the business growing, it’s a good investment.

Another way to utilise vertical space is through a mezzanine level or raised storage area. This is another way to reconfigure a warehouse to find more space in general. By moving storage or part of the warehouse operation above the floor, you can then do something else underneath, effectively doubling the space for the warehouse. A mezzanine level can be supported by pallet racking and also have shelving on it, making it a very versatile storage solution.

Find Out What’s Possible In Your Warehouse

These are just some of the options available to get more space out of your warehouse. If you’re curious about doing more, feel free to get in touch with us.