What Is Warehouse Footprint & How to Optimize It?

What is Warehouse Footprint?

Your warehouse footprint refers to the support needed to move your product from the distribution center to the customer. A warehouse footprint refers to a wide array of logistical support that creates your company’s supply chain, including elements such as:

• Your employees
• Your physical warehouse
• Your company trucks and vehicles
• Fuel and equipment
• Other parts of the distribution network

Why is Warehouse Footprint Important?

As a distribution company, it is crucial to be aware of your warehouse footprint and ways to optimize it. Why is warehouse footprint important? Simply put, the more logistical support that is required to distribute your product, the higher your overall costs of operations are. When the costs of managing your supply chain are high, it can make it incredibly difficult to turn a profit at your business, creating cash flow problems and other financial woes.

Monetary issues can quickly call into question the long term viability of your company. Optimizing your warehouse footprint helps reduce supply chain issues, lowers costs, and helps ensure that customer satisfaction levels remain high.

Read this article to learn more about how to optimise your warehouse footprint, common challenges, and concerns, plus how an effective inventory counting approach can help you better manage your warehouse operations.

How to Optimise Warehouse Footprint: 5 Tips and Tricks

If you’re wondering how to optimise warehouse footprint, it can be challenging to know where to begin. Each business has its own unique needs and challenges, which is why it’s key to take a thorough assessment of your warehouse operations as a whole before making any changes.

Luckily, there are a lot of things that you can do to optimize your warehouse footprint and help reduce costs while still delivering a high-quality product and service. Here are five ways for how to optimise your warehouse footprint at your business:

1. Create Designated Spaces and Zones

One of the best ways to keep operations running smoothly at all times is to keep your warehouse clean and clear. Create designated spaces, zones, and workplaces for your employees according to their roles and responsibilities. You should solicit feedback from team members directly, taking into account their concerns and suggestions on how to make the warehouse run more efficiently.

An organized warehouse boosts your operations by preventing accidents (by keeping areas clean and clear) and by creating dedicated areas and organized zones. This makes it safer and easier for workers to find what they need to complete their daily tasks, making your operations move faster and allowing you to ship larger amounts of product.

2. Calculate the Size of Your Warehouse Space

To know how to organize your space as efficiently as possible, it’s important to be familiar with your space. Calculate the size of your warehouse, by doing the following steps:

• Begin by finding out or measuring the total square footage of your warehouse
• Detract office space, bathrooms, and any additional space that isn’t used for warehouse operations
• Multiple the number of square feet that remain by your building’s clear height. Clear height can be calculated by measuring the distance from your finished floor to any overhead object.
• You now have your available warehouse space.

Once you know the size of the space you have to work with, you can then take further steps to optimize it, as well as organize spaces accordingly.

3. Track Your Distributions with Notifications

Another excellent way to expedite your operations is to track your inbound and outbound shipments. Setting notifications for your distributions allows your warehouse team to better anticipate the day-to-day needs of their workflow. When they know shipments are coming, they’ll be able to prepare by creating extra room, avoiding inventory glut, and ensuring there is enough labor to complete each task at hand.

4. Invest in Good Employee Training

High-quality employee training can also have a hugely positive impact on your warehouse footprint. When your employees are confident in their roles and have been properly prepared and equipped with the tools necessary to do their jobs, then your entire distribution chain benefits. Knowledgeable and satisfied employees are less likely to make mistakes or quit, preventing errors and labor shortages that could otherwise disrupt your operations.

5. Use Inventory Counting Software

An excellent method of optimizing your warehouse footprint is to utilize inventory counting software. Say goodbye to laborious inventory counting and costly mistakes by implementing inventory management technology. With easy-to-use, seamless inventory counting software, you’ll be able to:

• Develop clear and actionable strategies that optimize your warehouse and maximize savings
• View analytics and other key data in real-time, so you always have the information you need to make informed business decisions
• Effortless integration with your existing systems for a user-friendly experience
• Enjoy an intuitive and visually appealing interface each step of the way

By integrating advanced tools, you empower your business to operate more efficiently and accurately, ensuring that inventory levels are maintained optimally to meet demand without overstocking or understocking.

What are the Challenges of Warehouse Footprint?

Optimizing your operational space can come with some unique challenges, which are important to be aware of to overcome them. Here are three common issues that many businesses face when attempting to optimize their warehouse footprint:

1. Rising Industrial Real Estate Costs

The high cost of industrial real estate in many places reflects huge operational costs for many businesses, especially those leasing their facilities. In some cases, relocation costs may be worthwhile in the long run. Balancing the expenses associated with your physical location while ensuring accessibility and efficiency is a complex aspect of managing your warehouse footprint.

3. Shipping Expenses

High shipping costs make it difficult to achieve profitability. Some practical ways to reduce the cost of shipping your product include:

• Shipping on off-peak days
• Utilizing a third-party service
• Finding ways to load shipments more efficiently

Strategic approaches to shipment can significantly reduce expenses, but they require careful planning and coordination. Understanding inventory replenishment strategies can also play a crucial role in managing shipping costs effectively.

4. Labor Shortages

Labor shortages can put a heavy strain on your operations, making it difficult to complete key distribution tasks or deliver products efficiently. As labor shortages continue to be an issue faced in many sectors, employers must find ways to stay competitive in the job market. This might include offering competitive wages, benefits, and positive work environments to attract and retain skilled workers.

Optimizing your Warehouse Footprint with Zupan

Optimizing your warehouse footprint is easy with the right approach! Our inventory counting software is:

• Actionable
• Real-time
• Effortless
• Intuitive

Curious about how we can transform your operations? Learn more about how our solutions can enhance efficiency, accuracy, and profitability in your warehouse operations.