Inventory and Warehouse Management – How To Increase Space For Peak Season

Peak season is common as the majority of the people start preparing for the holiday shopping as November starts, and even much sooner. Peak season rush is a serious matter for retailers and distributors because the drastic shopping preferences shift requires early warehouse preparation. For peak season, the inventory and warehouse management system helps ramp up your operations with the expectation of coping with more activities. Moreover, you may need to increase storage capacity or make some process upgrades so that you can manage the expected increase in consumer demand in the coming months.

Changing your warehouse processes before the peak season is one thing, but you also have to meet the space challenge that comes with the peak season. Anyone working in retail, distribution or order fulfillment understands the odds of the holiday rush. And, only those who have prepared for the peak season and logistical challenges can earn the greatest rewards.

With the global pandemic driving changes in all walks of life and especially the consumer buying patterns, the online purchase activities have skyrocketed. According to Digital Commerce 360, U.S. eCommerce marked 44% growth in 2020 with online spending of 21.3% of the total retail business of the year. This COVID-related boost in the online share of the retail sales resulted in the rising challenge of the warehouse capacity increase and management.

Well, as we all know that warehouse storage does not come cheap considering the cost of layout design, material handling and occupancy, labor, and fulfillment. During the peak season, retailers need to make the best use of the warehouse space and workforce and revise the workflow process. It is ideal to add more space and hours to your warehouse operations mix to get ready for the peak season.

Here’s how you can better increase your existing warehouse capacity.

Layout Design:

Your warehouse space might be filled completely even in the low seasons because it is available to be eventually full by something. On the other hand, space deficiencies can also occur for multiple reasons. For instance, poor use of storage racks and excessive inventory input.

Take a close look at your existing inventory and warehouse management system if you don’t want any potential changes to be challenging. Before you set out for the required changes, make sure you have performed a detailed evaluation of your current storage space and its utilization and find room for improvement.

Also, determine if your existing inventory is placed in a way that workers can easily access and move the items. Inventory placement helps efficiently manage the increasing number of items during peak season. Also, there should be enough room to walk through the aisles, and easily use material handling equipment in shipping and receiving areas of your warehouse.

Demand Forecast:

Now, this is the key to handle peak season without any setbacks. Timely and accurately project the future warehousing needs. Again, inventory placement is vital to manage the escalating consumer demand.

Your warehouse storage needs to be quite predictable and this largely depends on when you have a better idea of upcoming storage needs. Peak seasons demand a fully anticipated jump to ensure an increased number of retail sales. Your sales and marketing teams can provide you the latest inventory projections and even the timings to make best sales growth.

Moreover, your sales personnel can tell you when to expand the inventory. They can also project, based on the previous consumer data and expected numbers, the estimated inventory turnover.

Improved Capacity:

You cannot afford poorly utilized warehousing space because it can negatively affect the steady sales growth, increased service requirements, and changed storage needs. What most of the warehouse owners and operators fail to recognize is that they can have more opportunities to find and utilize the space by reassessing their warehouse inventory management system and improving internal layout design.

For enhanced warehouse space management, find the most under-utilized storage areas like vertical space. You can maximize this vertical space using aisle pickers, consolidated pallets and save even more space by minimizing the aisle width.

Stack up the items to near ceiling height and tons of floor space will be freed up for seasonal items. But, make sure to put the items with high turnover within easy access and use. You can install a mezzanine, use double-depth racking and combine your receiving and shipping docks to save space.

Leverage Right Technology:

It is highly recommended to use dynamic and flexible WMS warehouse management software to improve your storage capacity. The use of the right equipment and automated technology will help maximize your warehouse storage space, especially during the peak seasons. You need to make your warehouse processes more efficient. Putting your labeling equipment or other workstation on an industrial powered cart will help increase productivity, reduce fatigue and speed up many other processes, like Receiving.

Unexpected downtime is a sales killer during a busy peak season. This risk needs to be minimized through preventive maintenance of existing equipment regularly and well as the busy season commences. Moreover, you should also consider potential upgrades to current tools and equipment to make your inventory space more efficient. These equipment usually include;

• Material handling equipment
• Storage and loading equipment
• Workstation equipment
• Pallet management equipment

It’s more than a short term solution!

As you get your warehouse well-prepared for peak seasons, you may also want to keep improving your other inventory management and supply chain operations. A scalable warehouse control system like InterSort by MWI Solutions helps reduce wasted space, improve paperless functionality, and offer greater visibility along with automated billing, particularly during peak seasons.

In fact, whatever shopping season and consumer behavior comes around at any point of time, a well-optimized warehouse space for any future surges will remain competitive and successful. Whether dealing with B2C or B2B customers, your warehouse facility keeps meeting their present and future demands by leveraging automated technology and improving space management strategies.