Is your warehouse prepared for the influx of inventory, shipments and returns that the holiday season can bring? The busy Christmas period is almost upon us, so now is the time to organise your warehouse to ensure you are ready to handle the increase in orders coming through.
During the lead-up to Christmas, it’s essential to do everything you can to maximise the experience for your customers and ease some stress for last-minute shoppers. The last thing your business needs is stressed and frustrated customers leaving negative reviews.
To maximise your warehouse operations during Christmas, we’ve listed our top 6 warehousing tips for surviving the holiday season.
Review your warehouse layout
Leading up to the busy Christmas period, it’s important to question if every component of your warehouse is laid out as efficiently as it could be. An organised warehouse helps businesses feel at ease, save time, monitor their stock levels, and keep on top of orders that need replenishment.
In addition, an organised warehouse layout makes the workplace more enjoyable for employees. To reduce labour time, placing the best-selling products in an easily accessible location is essential. Remember to train your employees to clean up as they go, keeping things organised and under control.
Stock accurately
During the Christmas period, it’s critical to try to match your stock to the demand as much as possible. Try your best to remove the guesswork from stocking by assessing sales and supplier data, reviewing buyer trends and looking at results from the previous season to make an educated judgement. Keep careful track of your best and worst performing stock, as this information can help you reassess, reducing waste and saving money.
Maintain your equipment
In the lead-up to the busy Christmas season, performing a thorough assessment of all your equipment is critical. Carefully assess your machines and ensure you have the right equipment for the job and that it is in working order. If you notice any machines are due for a service or equipment upgrade, it’s best to sort this out before it gets too close to Christmas. Failing to conduct regular maintenance can lead to an unexpected breakdown and unnecessary downtime, which most businesses simply cannot afford during Christmas.
In addition, forklift suppliers are under the pump during this period, and service wait times can be longer than usual. To schedule a maintenance check with our expert team, please contact us at 1300 499 678.
Expand and train your team
A well-trained team can make all the difference during busy periods. Start training your team well in advance, and focus on getting the little things correct so that your team doesn’t start to skip critical steps when the influx of orders arrives. To ensure you have all hands on deck during these periods, hiring seasonal workers will give your business added resources.
It’s important that seasonal workers undergo training in advance and are taught the same procedure as your full-time employees. Making sure your new staff are properly trained and understand the system is critical to a seamless process.
Retrain and upskill your current employees
Over time, as new staff are trained by different employees, it can be easy for things to slip through the cracks. In the lead-up to the busy periods, refresher training days reminds employees of procedures that may not be typical in their daily workload.
During this training, ensure all employees are equipped with the right licensing and qualifications to operate a forklift efficiently and safely. There’s nothing worse than getting into the busiest part of December and realising staff are missing essential qualifications.
Keep your customers informed
If you are worried that there might be delays over Christmas, save yourself by communicating clearly with your customers in advance. Alert your customers that delivery times might be longer than normal by adding carefully worded messaging to your website. Most people will be understanding around this time of year as long as they are informed at the time of purchase.
Do you have enough equipment?
Don’t let a shortage of forklifts slow down your warehouse efficiency during the holidays.
Our team has a range of late-model machinery available to hire or buy. If you are looking to expand your fleet, contact our expert team at 1300 HYWORTH.
