Ways Warehouse Optimization Improves Customer Service

In today's competitive market, it's not enough to provide an excellent product. You also have to maintain outstanding customer service. More than just smiling people on the phone, customer service encompasses the entire customer experience from purchase to delivery. 

Your warehouse plays a significant role in this experience since it controls two of the most important metrics by which your clients judge you: 

• "Did I get what I ordered?" 
• "Did it show up on time?"

An inefficient warehouse makes hitting these marks much more difficult than it needs to be. Read on to learn how warehouse optimization turns customer frustration into customer delight.

On-Time Delivery

At the end of the day, your clients care most about the metrics that affect their businesses. From a warehouse perspective, those start with an on-time delivery.

Your customers expect their orders to be delivered with the necessary products on a specific date. Their businesses rely on these deliveries arriving on time. Late arrivals affect their ability to meet their goals and can harm their relationship with you. Fortunately, there are several warehouse optimization strategies to help ensure that their orders arrive on time, every time.

Warehouse Design

The physical layout of your facility plays a foundational role in warehouse efficiency. Considerations like ceiling height, aisle width, column spacing, and ease of access affect how quickly your warehouse team can pick, pack, and ship orders. Analyzing these factors in your existing warehouse can reveal hidden inefficiencies costing you time and money. Even minor improvements to warehouse route optimization make significant differences. Likewise, your warehouse location, in relation to your customer base, dramatically affects shipping lead times. The farther you are away, the longer those lead times get and the greater the odds of a delay.

Material Handling Equipment

The adage "use the right tool for the job" also applies to warehouses. With ever-increasing specialization in material handling equipment, it can be tempting to select a run-of-the-mill, low-cost forklift and hope for the best. However, you'll significantly improve your order fulfillment efficiency if you pick the right machines for your needs.

When selecting a forklift, consider facility-specific data like average load weight, aisle width, lift height, and any special needs. For small goods facilities, you might consider an order picker instead of a traditional forklift. Facilities that handle oversized goods or non-palletized materials may require one or more forklift attachments for optimized performance.

Warehouse Safety

Warehouse accidents bring productivity to a screeching halt. Even non-lethal injuries result in lost productivity and expensive downtime. Making your warehouse as safe as possible not only protects your team. It also goes a long way toward optimizing your process. When looking for ways to improve safety at your facility, consider team behaviors, standard practices, warehouse conditions, facility design, and company policies like training requirements. Often, it is helpful to have a third party audit these processes to avoid overlooking hazards that have become so commonplace that they seem normal.

Order Accuracy

Getting a client's order delivered on time is only half the customer service battle. The order also has to be correct. Order errors result in returns or refused deliveries. Both delay your customers and force them to question your capabilities. These create pain points that rapidly become dissatisfaction and can eventually result in losing the customer.

Improving order accuracy is no small feat. Human error is a significant factor. Even hard-working, well-meaning people make mistakes. In fact, some estimates suggest humans make around 50 mistakes a day. However, there are tools you can use to reduce that number and improve your team’s accuracy.

Warehouse Automation

One of the biggest benefits of warehouse automation is its accuracy. Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRSs) virtually eliminate picking errors and error-related returns. Many of these systems also improve warehouse storage optimization, speeding up the order fulfillment process. ASRSs are so effective at enhancing warehouse optimization that they pay for themselves in approximately 18 months.

Warehouse Management Systems

Warehouse management systems (WMSs) are software systems that can track a multitude of warehouse metrics, from inventory to orders to forklift efficiency. Improved accuracy is a major benefit of these systems. Integrated manifests, barcode scanners, RFID tags, and similar tools help your team double-check that each order contains the correct items and quantities.

Like automation, WMSs also universally improve warehouse efficiency through suites of features like inventory management tools. These digital tools allow you to track stock turnover rates and predict seasonal demands, ensuring you have the right products and quantities in stock. Many WMSs can integrate with ASRSs to form a seamless inventory management network.

Toyota Lean Management

No matter the tools at your disposal, your human staff will always be your warehouse's greatest asset. Toyota Lean Management (TLM) is a methodology of business management that emphasizes respect for your people, long-term thinking, and constant improvement. It's a never-ending process that asks employees at every level to continuously look for ways to make their operations leaner and more sustainable. TLM requires daily effort from everyone on your team, but baking it into your culture can have huge benefits for your employee retention and your bottom line. Even a 1% reduction in picking errors could save you millions in returns and turn customer satisfaction into delight.

Optimization Solutions

There are no off-the-rack solutions to optimize warehouse efficiency. Optimization is a tailored process that pulls tools from every part of the industry to create a custom solution fitted to your unique enterprise. That process can be almost impossible to complete alone due to a psychological phenomenon called habituation. Essentially, humans stop noticing the things that they see every day. For that reason, true optimization almost always requires the assistance of a third party, someone who doesn't see your facility every day and can notice details that would otherwise escape your team.

Our Solutions Team does precisely that. Our experts work with you to identify inefficiencies in your process and create bespoke solutions, making your warehouse leaner than ever. To learn more about warehouse optimization, contact us online to request a copy of our free Guide to Warehouse Optimization or visit one of our locations throughout Georgia and Florida.

Florida
Jacksonville
Lakeland
Ocala
Orlando
Tampa
Winter Haven

Georgia
Albany
Macon
Columbus
Valdosta

Further Reading
How Much Do Picking Errors Cost Your Business?
Going the Distance for Warehouse Safety
4 Things To Consider When Converting to Electric Forklifts