New forklift trucks? New warehouse? Or everything new?
Small and medium-sized companies in particular find it difficult to make the right decisions when investing in logistics.
When internal logistics, from warehousing to order picking to shipping, repeatedly come to a standstill due to growing volumes, quick action is called for.
This does not only apply to the trade. Building contractors as well as medium-sized and small companies are often faced with the problem that too much time is lost until all machines, equipment and materials are on the construction site. Too small outdoor storage areas and too narrow aisles in the halls, no system, tools that are too old or unsuitable (forklifts, wheel loaders…) – the reasons are numerous, as are the hours lost every day.
You won’t find any solutions or instant help in this article, but you will find simple examples that will make you think and perhaps help you to improve your own logistics quickly. However, speed should not be equated with quick, hasty action. So don’t just go ahead, plan, rebuild and buy. Good advice is often not expensive. The analysis of a logistics expert probably saves (a lot!) more money than it costs.
An example: The warehouse is too small! All the shelves are crammed full and the forklifts can barely drive through the aisles. A new hall is needed, larger and with wider aisles. It can be done, but maybe it doesn’t have to be: perhaps it’s better to make the aisles narrower and thus create deeper shelves, which means more storage capacity. Narrow-aisle forklifts, high-lift order pickers or driver’s seat high-lift trucks then take care of storage and retrieval. These then transfer the pallets to forklift trucks, of which far fewer are needed in this system than before. It is easy to calculate whether this is the right approach.
If it turns out that this conversion is not sufficient for the future handling volume, the next step can be to make calculations for conversion to semi-automatic or fully automatic, driverless warehousing. The construction of a new warehouse should also be included in the calculations.
In all planning and calculations, all operating costs must always be taken into account, depending on the operating time. Let’s stick with the example described above: building a new warehouse with more rack space and slightly wider aisles, but otherwise a twin of the existing warehouse, is the cheapest purchase. But more forklifts and more drivers are needed. If you add up the purchase of the machines and the operating costs for people and machines, the apparently cheapest solution becomes a cost trap, and another variant, such as a fully automated 4.0 warehouse, is suddenly the price-performance winner.
Time is also a decisive factor. Not only the time lost in searching, clearing back and forth, but also time that has been wasted because everything has always gone well so far. These are often small and medium-sized companies where working methods and warehouse structures have not been adapted to actual requirements over the years. We are talking about the beverage store with 2 forklifts and 5-10 high-lift trucks, the building materials trade with forklifts and wheel loaders or the tiler with tile storage and sales.
Those who wait until almost nothing is moving before investing in their fleet and warehouse often make hasty decisions in the hope that everything will be fine afterwards. It is better to buy time with small investments, used industrial trucks and rented storage space to get professional advice and weigh up all the options.
Warehousing and transportation are a complex business.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for all jobs. Every transport operation and every workplace has its own individual requirements, its own challenges and its own standards. The right choice of technology and storage locations makes every operation more efficient, more productive and safer. And regular review – has the situation changed, are there different standards, are the machines still optimal for the job, what is the competition doing better or worse – makes the difference between success and decline.
When it is time to replace or expand the equipment fleet, it is always advisable to re-evaluate the requirements and the complete warehouse setup. Are new specialized forklifts perhaps the better choice for this or that task?
It’s old wisdom: if everything fits together, if the machines are matched to the application, this promotes efficiency. Even small changes can have a big impact. There is no warehousing without risk. A holistic approach that takes energy efficiency, sustainability, location advantages and future prospects into account reduces the risk of making the wrong decisions.
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