0203 764 9380While we consider warehouse racking and industrial shelving to be the bread and butter of your warehouse operation, it’s the little details that keep the whole plan running smoothly and on song. Of course, you wouldn’t be anywhere without a good set of industrial shelving, but what else do you rely on daily?
Consider the workbenches and stations at which your staff work, the trolleys and sack trucks that cart stock around the warehouse, and even the plastic storage boxes that neatly pack away the smaller items in your storage facility. They all play such a vital part in your day to day operations that they make themselves indispensable.
There is a list of the most essential items you should accessorise your warehouse with, which we’ll cover in more detail below. However, to call them ‘accessories’ does them a disservice – they are far more integral to your operation than a fashion accessory. They are the lifeblood of your operation, excluding the staff that run the warehouse.
The importance of warehouse equipment
The right warehouse equipment aside from your industrial shelving can go a long way to saving you time, money, and potential pitfalls such as injury. You can have the best staff available to run your warehouse, but it’s the equipment they use that elevates their processes to another level.
For example, using sack trucks and trolleys to move big loads instead of carrying heavy boxes can save on injury and speed up processes. So let’s take a look at some of the most critical pieces of kit for your warehouse.
Sack Trucks and Dollies
Ideal for lifting and transporting heavy loads, sack trucks can be used across warehouses, shopping centres, offices and even at home and in the garden. Available in a range of weight capacities from 60kg to 300kg, most sack trucks come with puncture-proof tyres, wheel guards and knuckle protecting grips.
Sack trucks are ideal for preventing injury and speeding up lifting and moving processes. Even if you have the fittest and strongest team in your warehouse, the sack truck will make their life significantly more straightforward and help them get the job done.
With similar benefits to sack trucks, dollies are lighter and more manoeuvrable – often with carry handles for transportation.
Workbenches and Workstations
An essential for any warehouse, workbenches and workstations offer the space needed to carry out order packing and other tasks in the workplace. Often coming with storage features themselves, they are arguably just as important as the industrial shelving found elsewhere in the warehouse or storage facility. As a result, workbenches are ideal for bringing order and structure to your warehouse, as well as adding much-needed storage space.
Storage Equipment
With carefully selected storage equipment such as plastic storage boxes, tote boxes, parts bins, and shelves, a warehouse can fully maximise its space and become as efficient as possible. As a result, staff will be able to locate the stock they need quickly and efficiently, and profit and loss margins can be protected as your inventory will be easier to manage – minimising stock loss.
Conveyors
A conveyor is a material handling machine that can move items from one point to another. These can come in the form of gravity-operated roller conveyors, belt conveyors, pneumatic conveyors and many more. Conveyors are extremely useful for minimising injuries and speeding up processes by moving cargo quickly and with ease instead of staff having to shift the loads manually. Conveyors are often indispensable in warehouses but are taken for granted.
Ladders and Steps
No warehouse is complete without a set of ladders or steps, maybe even some that are compatible with lighting equipment. When we say that there are items in your warehouse that go unnoticed yet are the lifeblood of your operation, we mean things like the ladders you keep. Without these items, we would be lost, and the ladder typifies this idea.
Bringing it all together
The items listed here are items that, if you were without, your job would become significantly harder to complete. We take them for granted, but when we lose them, we struggle to fulfil daily tasks. Without your team to use the kit listed, it all means nothing. The smaller items and attention to detail are your operation's lifeblood but don’t forget that the team within your warehouse brings it all together. Of course, your warehouse or industrial shelving takes up the most space and is the big-ticket item within your operation – but don’t forget your team or the kit they use to get the job done.