SpanTrack Lane Carton Flow Rollers
Efficient, durable, and dependable, SpanTrack Lane carton flow rollers drop into existing structures to create the ultimate carton flow rack system for manufacturing facilities and order picking operations.
Every year, peak retail season brings unique challenges to warehouse operations of all sizes. In some industries, fourth-quarter sales represent more than a third of total annual revenue.
While this is nothing new, the era of online retail and digital marketing puts even more pressure on warehouse stocking and fulfillment operations to stay flexible and keep pace with fast-changing demand. Last-minute orders, viral product demand surges, and larger-than-expected volume can all throw a wrench in fulfillment. Artificial intelligence (AI) now creates such personalized advertising that retailers are learning to expect the unexpected. It’s no surprise that retail experts are forecasting more challenges with maintaining inventory and ensuring fast fulfillment during the 2024 peak season.
In reality, preparing for these surges shouldn’t be a once-a-year event. A warehouse that’s equipped to handle peak season is one that can manage fluctuating demand and inventory changes year-round. Here’s how to set up your warehouse for peak season — and streamline your operations for optimal fulfillment all year long.
Understanding the Challenges of Peak Season
Retailers face a host of challenges during the busy season. Well before orders begin to surge — sometimes even as early as mid-summer — retailers and their suppliers must begin to prepare warehouses and ramp up inventory levels to meet growing demand. This can introduce space constraints as warehouses struggle to make room for new inventory and reorganize shelf space for optimal fulfillment.
Once peak season is underway, warehouse managers face a constant barrage of logistical challenges, from managing stock levels to prioritizing fast-movers as promotions change. Today’s omnichannel fulfillment environment further complicates matters, and labor shortages often become an issue at this stage, especially if the warehouse isn’t effectively organized for optimal fulfillment.
Fulfillment centers also face a sudden need to expand their reverse logistics as holiday returns flow into the warehouse. Without dynamic storage solutions and other systems to increase order-picking efficiency and streamline returns, the exhilaration of peak retail season can quickly give way to exhaustion as operations unravel.
Key Steps to Implement for Peak Season Success
Without a doubt, ensuring your warehouse is ready for peak season requires careful planning to forecast inventory changes and coordinate order fulfillment with holiday promotions. However, the most important preparations revolve around rethinking your warehouse layout and flow for more efficient fulfillment.
Here are six steps you can take to prepare for warehouse peak season.
1. Optimizing Product Workflows
Workflow optimization is essential to effective fulfillment during the busy seasons. This includes:
- Reducing product handling and unnecessary movements.
- Positioning seasonal or popular items closer together to minimize walking time.
- Using throughput analysis to determine the best storage solutions for different SKUs (e.g., slow, medium, and fast movers) and consistently evaluating this as your product mix changes year-to-year and season-to-season.
Dynamic storage solutions make it easy to establish an efficient shelf layout and adjust product placement as fulfillment needs change. UNEX solutions like SpanTrack, Pallet Track, and SpeedCell, which we’ll cover in detail below, make items more accessible. These enhancements improve workflow efficiency and reduce worker movement.
2. Preparing for Increased Labor Costs
Peak-season order surges place an inevitable strain on labor budgets as staffing requirements balloon and the risk of overtime looms. Yet, some simple layout and storage changes can work wonders to minimize the need for dramatic changes in staffing and labor expenses.
Organizing inventory along efficient pick paths or in picking zones can reduce worker movement and keep fulfillment moving. Additionally, using ergonomic picking solutions with angled shelving can reduce the risk of worker strain and improve picking efficiency. Be sure to train workers on these systems well ahead of the holiday rush.
3. Improving Space Utilization
Peak season will quickly spotlight any dead zones or underutilized areas of your warehouse. However, maximizing efficiency means no space is wasted. Every square inch of floor space — and vertical space —must have a purpose.
So, before you expand into a larger space, take a close look at your existing layout. Search for opportunities to add high-density storage solutions that increase capacity without expanding your warehouse footprint. Instead of wasting flat, static shelving areas with dead space, you can fill some of those with more efficient storage solutions that allow for quick changes throughout the year.
4. Increasing Storage Capacity
Opening space for more SKUs is the name of the game during peak season. The simplest way to start is by conducting an inventory review to look for opportunities to reslot items. Organize based on throughput to make your fastest movers more accessible for quick fulfillment.
Here again, leveraging UNEX space-saving solutions like SpeedCell, for example, can help you increase storage density by up to 60% while reducing labor costs by as much as 40%.
5. Streamlining Reverse Logistics
Returns happen throughout the year, but they present an acute challenge during the holiday season. According to Retail Dive, returns in 2022 averaged 18% of all merchandise during the holidays, compared to 16.5% throughout the rest of the year.
This calls for dedicated, organized returns areas that are condensed and laid out for efficiency, just like your fulfillment zones. Ensure storage mediums for returns are properly sized to handle the increased volume, and use mobile carts to expedite returns processing as needed.
6. Implementing New Equipment Early
When preparing for warehouse peak season, the worst thing you can do is wait until the last minute to consider setting up new equipment for inventory management.
This process involves researching, selecting, and ordering new equipment, plus the time needed for shipping, installation, and integration into your warehouse. Manufacturers encounter the same fulfillment challenges and order backlogs as retailers during Q3 and Q4, so start your planning process in early summer, if not sooner.
Right-Sizing for Year-Round Efficiency
As you probably know, these solutions aren’t just effective for peak season. In fact, establishing better systems for inventory management and order-picking efficiency brings benefits all year.
To move beyond planning for peak season to ensuring efficient year-round fulfillment, consider the following.
Right-Sizing Equipment
The foundation for building an effective system for order management, regardless of season, is right-sizing your shelving and other storage systems. This involves investing in solutions that help you optimize the amount of inventory you hold, both during peak and off-peak seasons. Right-sizing demands versatile equipment that can easily adapt to fluctuating demands without requiring temporary fixes.
Year-Round Operational Streamlining
With optimal inventory storage solutions in place, you can take steps to streamline stocking and order flow throughout the year, regardless of which products are moving quickly at any given time. This may include:
- Using modular and scalable storage solutions you can adjust as needed.
- Employing dynamic storage solutions that optimize space and improve efficiency throughout the year.
- Implementing ergonomic and efficient solutions that reduce strain and increase productivity in peak and off-peak times.
Creative Solutions for Peak Season
Optimizing for year-round fulfillment doesn’t mean you can’t be nimble during peak-season surges. For instance, mobile picking carts can facilitate quick changes for increased order volumes without permanently altering your warehouse layout. You can also deploy modular flow racks — stationary or mobile — to scale flexible workflows up or down depending on seasonal demand.
UNEX Solutions for Peak Season and Year-Round Success
Fortunately, you don’t have to look far to find solutions for peak season and year-round fulfillment success. UNEX products are designed to help you streamline your warehouse operations to handle the ebb and flow of business with ease.
These dynamic storage solutions, in particular, are well-suited for peak-season planning:
SpeedCell: This dynamic high-density storage system increases SKU density by up to 60% with movable columns that fit seamlessly into existing pallet rack systems. Having compact storage with easy inventory access reduces labor needs by up to 40%. SpeedCell is ideal for low-throughput SKUs and small parts storage.
SpeedCartt: This mobile picking cart enhances order-picking efficiency and assists with reverse logistics during the busy holiday season. SpeedCartt increases pick efficiency, reduces travel time, and helps workers handle high-traffic areas more effectively. Whether you employ it in your warehouse, retail locations, or for “buy online, pick up in store” (BOPIS) orders, it enhances order picking, staging, and returns management.
SpanTrack: These ergonomic carton flow racks are designed for first-in-first-out (FIFO) storage and can be tailored to your specifications to create an ideal product flow for your warehouse. With a unique drop-in design, you can fit tracks right into existing pallet racks. SpanTrack provides 300% more product contact than traditional plastic wheel rails, eliminating hangups and making it ideal for medium- to fast-moving SKUs. With movable infeed guides, knuckled end treatments, and a variety of other add-ons, you can easily tweak your shelf setup to fit the needs of the season.
Pallet Track: This pallet-flow system is built to streamline fast-moving SKU handling. It creates a FIFO estorage system for full pallets, enabling bulk storage while still keeping high-volume products at the point of pick. Pallet track improves worker safety and further enhances efficiency by reducing reliance on fork trucks in high-throughput environments.
Get Started on Your Peak Season Preparation Today
Don’t wait until the return of the busy season to prepare your warehouse for optimal inventory management and fulfillment. By strategically introducing dynamic storage solutions, you can enhance your operations and ensure year-round success.
UNEX offers a range of solutions to help you streamline your warehouse layout, upgrade your fulfillment systems, and prepare for fluctuating demand at any time of the year. Contact us today for more information on these and other dynamic storage solutions.
