The warehouse. The office.

Sometimes it’s as if one doesn’t exist to the other. As one of our customers told us, “it’s like we have two companies here, and one doesn’t know what the other is up to.”

But when you’re trying to operate better, it’s impossible to separate the two functions. Decisions can be made in one area that can impact the other severely, so communication and cooperation are vital. Too bad it doesn’t always work that way. How can you improve it?

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It’s important to control costs in your operation. What are some warehousing cost-cutting methods you can employ that don’t require extensive investment or re-tooling? Most of the costs of warehousing operations fall into the following categories:

• People
• Real Estate, Utilities & other Fixed Costs
• Inventory
• Technology

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Cliff Holste at Supply Chain Digest (opens in a new window) has a good piece on ways to improve picking productivity.

Distribution centers will benefit from emerging automated case picking technologies, but those don’t fit for every operation, at every level. They’re also expensive upgrades, so your ROI has to be considered as well.

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