The weeks leading up to Christmas are the busiest of the year for the majority of businesses – especially warehouses. You might be experiencing an influx of orders, you may have taken on temporary staff to cope with the heightened demand, and you might be stocking new products specific to this time of year. All of these factors can combine to turn Christmas into a disaster if your warehouse isn’t adequately prepared.
To get you ready for the Christmas rush, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to help you achieve maximum efficiency and minimise the risk of accidents at this busy time of year.
Make sure staff are properly trained
If you’re bringing in extra staff to cope with demand, make sure they’re trained up properly. It can be tempting to bring in a couple of part-time employees over Christmas to help ensure you make the most of the busiest season, but if you throw them in at the deep end, they can end up making mistakes that can cost your business. They could even cause an injury to themselves or another member of staff. Take the time to train and prepare these staff members properly, even if they’re not going to be with you for long.
Test your tech
Before the Christmas rush sets in, it’s worth conducting thorough tests of all your technology and machinery. Imagine if one of your systems went down on a particular busy day – and all because you didn’t give it a once-over in the preceding weeks? Try to ensure you do this in advance – there’s no use waiting until the rush actually sets in to start testing!
Place stock efficiently
If you’re stocking particular products just for Christmas (decorations, toys, or gadgets, for example), try to rotate your stock to ensure they’re in the most convenient location for pickers. These are the products that will fly off the shelves most quickly, and you need to be best-placed to help them do so! If you’re not sure of which products you need to move, take a look at your sales data from recent years – this should help you prioritise which items should be at the front of the picking area.
Discourage corner-cutting
When operations are so hectic around the festive period, it can be tempting for staff to cut corners in order to reduce their workload or ensure all of their jobs are completed on time. Call a staff meeting in advance and discourage this kind of behaviour, reminding all staff of their responsibilities. When corners are cut, your staff could be putting themselves and others at risk. Policies and processes are there for a reason, and skipping steps won’t lead to increased productivity.
So there you have it – a few tips and tricks to help your warehouse get ready for the busiest time of the year. Will you be putting any of these into practice? Let us know in the comments.
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