At first, it might be hard to imagine a warehouse ever running out of room. With thousands of square feet that you can use to run the distribution or production end of your business, it may seem like you have endless space. However, you’d be surprised how quickly you can run out of available floor space in a warehouse. You might think that when you run out of room in one warehouse, you automatically have to start thinking about expanding into a separate one. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to create space in a warehouse when you’re running low.
Figure Out if There’s Wasted Space
The first thing you need to do when running low on space in a warehouse is to figure out if there’s any wasted space that you could be using. Look for inventory that’s been sitting in your warehouse for a while without going out (often referred to as “dead inventory”). If it’s not selling, consider moving it out of the warehouse. You could move it to a secondary location, put it on sale, or even donate it somewhere. Whatever you choose to do with it, that could free up valuable space in your warehouse.
Build Up, Not Out
Even if your floor space is all spoken for, you can take advantage of other space in your warehouse, including the space from the floor to the ceiling. Putting in vertical shelving can greatly expand your available space if you don’t have it already. Thinking about the depth of your shelving is important also- consider whether it would be better for your business to have lots of shallow shelving or a few deeper shelves.
Consider a Mezzanine
Mezzanines can be incredibly useful for creating extra warehouse space. If you need more floor space in your warehouse, it’s helpful to move office space and administrative space to other locations. This is where mezzanines can come in handy. While a mezzanine may not be ideal for storage (depending on the weight of the products you’re storing), you can certainly move offices up onto a mezzanine and free up that space on the floor for more storage or production space. The beauty of a mezzanine is that you can install and uninstall them as needed. They’re usually pretty reasonably priced as well, ranging on average from $20-$30 per square foot. Plus, if you install a mezzanine and decide that you don’t like how it impacts the flow of your warehouse, you can always move it around.
Half-Pallets Can Help
If you’ve got a bit of space at the edge of your warehouse, but not enough to fit a full pallet, consider using half-pallets to fill that space. You’d be surprised how much space you can conserve by using half-pallets instead of full pallets! Taking advantage of the space at the edge of your warehouse can expand the amount of inventory you’re able to carry, as well as your workspace within the warehouse.
JIT Can Optimize Your Inventory
One of the easiest ways to create extra storage space in your warehouse is to optimize your inventory management. The “just in time” method of inventory management can help with that. JIT involves eliminating backstock in your warehouse, instead of relying on your suppliers to provide inventory as needed to fill orders. So if someone ordered 20 of your products, you’d then order 20 from your suppliers instead of keeping a bunch in the warehouse. This can free up a lot of storage space, but you need to make sure you have extremely reliable suppliers if you’re going to utilize this method.
Need a Warehouse?
Contact us for help finding the perfect warehouse space for lease or purchase! Schwarz Properties specializes in commercial and residential Property Management in Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. We lead the market for industrial and warehouse spaces for lease and our portfolio also includes retail space, restaurant space, residential, office space, and many more. Please contact Schwarz Properties at 336-895-1336 or visit our website.
