There’s no question that a productive warehouse is a profitable warehouse. When it comes to maintaining your competitive edge, delivering quality work efficiently usually means greater return on investment. For starters, here are 3 great ways to help you to scale the wall of productivity and profit. Safety First: Work Environment Optimization Safety is the uncompromising principle behind every efficient warehouse. Warehouses understand that a forklift-related accident can create serious (and fatal) consequences, while slowing down work efficiency. Besides providing ongoing employee safety training workshops to warehouse workers and forklift operators, warehouses can re-evaluate their work setting and make some simple changes. For example, optimizing your lighting system and installing mirrors around sharp corners can dramatically boost workplace visibility and keep your employees well-aware of their surroundings. Widening some of the narrow aisles, on the other hand, will also give forklift operators more room and space to turn and move about. Finally, keep all running electric cords out of the way, and equip workers with walkie-talkies or radios to promote open communication. Productivity: Technology Integration While every warehouse should make sure that their material handling team is fully-staffed, upgrading the quality of your workhorses will give you an extra lift in workplace productivity. According to Material & Handling Logistics (MHL), technological development in the material handling industry has streamlined many of the logistics and management tasks in the warehouse. “The Internet of Things (IoT) has many applications in the supply chain—for example, warehouse stock levels can be continually monitored so that stocks can be replenished whenever sensors detect a near-out-of-stock situation.” Additionally, warehouses with routine and repetitive material handling jobs should seriously consider automated guided forklifts and outsource their human power elsewhere. That way, you can have machines getting the jobs done without risking any of your valuable employees. […]