Warehouse Maintenance – How to Get it Right?

Warehouse Maintenance – How to Get it Right

Warehouse downtimes cost you important business deals, cause a delay in order fulfillment and impact your company’s bottom line. Therefore, ensuring every warehousing component is in the right working order becomes crucial.

Warehouse maintenance procedures go far beyond basic cleanliness. They also include machinery, electrical systems, structural aspects, and most importantly, your staff members who facilitate the whole process.

“Don’t fix it, if it ain’t broken.” This approach might work for your old Chevy, but when it comes to warehouse maintenance, you ought to act before your conveyor system goes kaput or one of the forklifts breaks down. Preventive maintenance is key, and here’s how to do it right.

Managing Resources

Machinery tends to break down and can be fixed. But it’s difficult to fix an unproductive, incompetent employee. Therefore, your recruitment process should involve strict screening as the first step. Make sure your workers possess the necessary certification and experience for the job. Taking this simple measure can keep safety hazards and legal troubles off the fence.

Regular training is also important to keep your staff motivated and aligned with changing technologies and advancements in your operations.

Prepare your staff for emergency evacuation by conducting safety drills regularly. When you are working in a high-risk environment, staying alert is not an option but a necessity.

Ensuring Safety

As a business owner, it’s your responsibility and legal obligation to provide your staff with a safe work environment. With a lot of mechanical components working together for extended hours, warehouses are inherently vulnerable to accidents. But you can avoid mishaps by ensuring suitable hazard mitigation measures are in place, such as fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, anti-slip flooring, sprinkler systems, etc.

As a part of your business conduct, mandate the use of safety gear at all times. Label hazardous zones to alert staff and visitors to potential dangers and highlight exit points for quick evacuation during an emergency.

Pest Treatment

Insects, birds, and rodents can swarm your warehouse in search of shelter. More often than not, they target those dark, obscure corners to breed and then spread all over the place. Not only can these pests hurt your personnel, but they can also damage your goods, especially if it’s a food items.

Identify those vulnerable areas and goods that are favored by pests. A great way to prevent pests from entering and causing damage is good warehouse insulation. Speak with your pest control specialist to discuss various possibilities to ensure all-around protection against pest infestation. Regular clean-up and pest purging procedures can keep your facility pest-free all year round.

Forklift Maintenance

Forklift accidents are catastrophic. Therefore, it’s better to pay more to a licensed and experienced forklift operator than to risk the safety of your personnel and goods with a beginner.

While forklift transmission failures are common, you can avoid downtime by replacing worn-out transmission parts before they wear out completely. Forklift specialists like CIF Transmissions have got your back for forklift transmission service, repair, and emergency replacement so that you can focus on other core business operations.

Depending on the amount of abuse your forklift takes every day, CF Transmissions can provide preventive maintenance at regular intervals.

Another element of a forklift that you might have to change is the brake wheel cylinder. Since they go through so much, it is natural that they wear out after use. Make sure that you are stocked up on brake wheel cylinders so that you can replace them as soon as one requires a replacement.

Technology to your aid

Monitoring and maintaining your warehouse equipment, spares, and machinery can become challenging as you expand your operations. And when you go into expansion without proper planning, the overall efficiency takes a hit.

However, you can manage your equipment by using a Computerized Maintenance Management System. The software will keep track of your maintenance procedures and will drop a reminder as and when the maintenance is due. You can also rely on an Order Management System to ensure efficient warehousing operations.

To sum it up, create a maintenance checklist and conduct regular inspections to register the condition of your warehouse equipment and machinery. And it is always recommended to get into an annual maintenance contract with an expert to protect and prolong the life of your expensive equipment.