The new year is at our doorstep and you are probably doing everything in your power to get your warehouse in the best possible shape. You should manage the operations from manufacturing to distribution, and make sure that your warehouse is set on the right path and that all of your pre-solutions are operating perfectly at the beginning of the new year.

The way you start off the new year can be the main indicator of how well you will do your business throughout the rest of the year, so make sure that you are prepared for the challenges that the new year can bring. Always make sure to keep your warehouse well organized. By doing this, your workers won’t lose time walking around the warehouse in search of a specific item and therefore losing a lot of time.

Today we have prepared 5 good tips for you in order to help you get your warehouse ready for the new year, so let’s dive in.

Warehouse Planning

Make a layout plan for each part of your warehouse. Make sure that you have your receiving, inventory, and shipping ready for the improvement in the business. Calculate to check if you can provide enough space for the arriving products inside of your warehouse. Always tend to improve the organization, storage capacity, and utilization so that you can avoid scrambling once the delivery starts arriving. 

Space Requirements

If your warehouse is under holiday-heavy business, then you will probably experience an inventory increase of at least 30–50% more items than you usually receive throughout the year, so you should take into consideration to perform the beam spacing with smaller pallets and by that you will end up with a lot of open space that will allow you to move and operate faster through your storage when it is needed.

Before making any further move, ask yourself these questions:

• Did you need any temporary storage previous year?

• Have you ever performed any similar methods for the holidays?

• Should you measure the shelf locations and their size so that you can better match the size of the incoming pallets?

• Can you find a place for the additional pallets in the storage?

Order Predictions

A lot of companies are getting approximately 50% of their total orders in the last quarter of the year, and almost all of the orders are being made in the last 45 days of the year. By the experience of the previous years’ sales, you should already have an idea of what to expect. You should be able to predict the daily or weekly level of sales (depending on the type of sales you are offering) and therefore you can decide how many products you have to move.

Storage Staffing

Once you have set your predictions in motion, in order for everything to go as smoothly as possible, you will have to staff up to meet the requirements. You should calculate the needs of your staffing on a daily basis in order to meet your service goals.

Maintain Your Warehouse Properly

The way you handle a wave of orders is mostly defined by how well your warehouse is equipped and how well that equipment operates. Ensuring that you have all of your equipment well maintained before you face the order waves is very crucial if you are aiming to have a successful holiday season sale. So always make sure to check the list below before the holiday season:

• Lifting equipment

• Backup Power Supply

• Scanners

• Printers

• Power Conveyors

• PLC Systems

Note: depending on the size of the warehouse and the business that you are running, the list may vary, so always make sure to have your crucial equipment checked before the season hits in order to get the best possible outcome. 

There are so many things that you can do to prepare your warehouse for the New Year, but if you follow our steps above then you should be able to position yourself for a successful season. Don’t forget to note down everything that you did and that you have learned during the holiday season so that you can prepare yourself much better next year.