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Back in March when it became clear that we would be in for a very unpredictable year ahead, we were quick to point out that anyone who was not already good at E-Commerce would now need to be or disproportionately suffer from the slowdown in activity. Four months into the crisis, that seems more true than even we had considered.

Since 2020 has us rethinking EVERYTHING we were doing before, we wanted to make a quick share for you to start the week with a visual look at some basic Warehouse Design fundamentals. The events of the last few months have everyone wondering what the warehouse of the future will look like. But while doing updates to your CURRENT space to react to the new normal, how closely have you been adhering to the basics already?

We thought this infographic was a good representation of some of those basic pillars of good warehouse design. Let's start with the basics we use for planning. The one thing we'll highlight here is how often we hear that space management is the BIGGEST issue our client's are having. If you are exceeding the guidance below and using over 30% of your square footage for storage, it means you might be feeling crowded. Better rack utilization and building up may improve your sense of space!

A few weeks ago in Part I, we looked at the bigger picture of Dock Design – the facility itself and the advantages and disadvantages of the different possible configurations for your docks and their bays (See the full article here). This week we’ll walk through some of the key elements in outfitting your dock that ensure optimal productivity for your facility and your shipping partners.

By now we are all aware we are dealing with an unprecedented global crisis that is going to impact every business and customer we know. But the impact will vary by the industry and type of customer being served. While we are not in the business of playing the role of economic pundits peering into reams of data and making predictions, it is safe to say that a boost in E-commerce operations among across many industries is already happening as retailers shut stores.

Have you spent any time observing the activity on your dock recently? How do you feel about the way it works and the share of cost it takes in your operations? Are you tracking the cost? Well, given that nearly every operations facility is a “cost center” on your company’s P&L, you should be looking at your cost structure for each of our main “Process Areas” like Receiving, Picking, Packing, Shipping, etc. While there are a lot of factors that go into generating the cost model for each of your processes, two areas in particular - Receiving and Shipping - are particularly dependent on the design of your dock and the equipment deployed to support it.

Unless your facility is consistently recognized as a bleeding edge innovator and always staying two steps ahead of the rest of your industry, you’re probably like the rest of us and are hungry to know more about how your facility performs or compares to your competitors or others in your industry.

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

“Industry 4.0” is a term now in common use generally to describe the “fourth industrial revolution”, a term that it is used interchangeably with. But what does it mean, on a high level and specifically for what impact it might have on your business?

To get us all on the same page, let’s first go back to “Industry 1.0” and be clear about the other distinct eras of industrial revolution:

In October, Newcastle Systems’ own Kevin Ledversis was on a team of presenters in a webinar that dug into the challenges managers are facing with labor issues – sourcing, hiring, training and retaining in addition to things like performance and pay.  We’ve covered labor and staffing as a regular topic here over the years, and think the data that was assembled for this webinar is worth sharing widely.

It’s not in our culture here to talk about ourselves too much, nor our products. We especially don’t like talking about OTHER products because we like to think ours can speak for themselves. That’s why nearly everything we publish here in our blog and white papers are about the things we know that help our readers the most – things like process, automation, warehouse management, lean practices, and more. And we always enjoy the feedback we get year-to-year that tells us you want more content like that, especially in regards to process and measurement.

This week we are sharing a guest blog by Chris Crane of Excelsior Integrated.

Improving your product delivery can have a substantial impact on your customer satisfaction and overall success. If you want to grow your business, then you will want to evaluate your shipping methods, among many other aspects that can delay your products getting to your customer's front door.