Inventory loss can significantly cut in on your profits, but keeping stockroom shelving tidy can minimize losses and improve your bottom line. When you keep your stockroom shelving contents neat and organized so that it's easier to keep track of inventory, you make it less likely that loss will even occur. In addition, knowing just what you've got in inventory at any given moment will help avoid embarrassing situations whereby you might run out of something.
Choose modular shelving systems that make it easy to get and keep inventory organized
With retail and pharmacy stockroom space hard to come by, you have to make the most efficient use of that space possible. The shelving systems you use must also make it easy for you to keep inventory organized. For that, it's usually best to opt for modular shelving.
- What's great about modular shelving?
Modular stockroom shelving systems let you swap one storage component out for another as needed. You can change configurations as you need to, endlessly; this helps you keep your inventory neat and organized on an ongoing basis, without having to reconfigure your stockroom from scratch. When you use pegs, trays and bins in combination with standard shelving as part of your stockroom shelving systems,you can keep smaller items contained nicely so that they're much easier to keep track of and won't get lost. You can combine these components with regular standard shelving for larger items, again with an eye to having "a place for everything, and everything in its place.
Use stockroom space efficiently
You might be thinking, "Modular shelving is great, but how do I find 'a place for everything, and everything in its place' when my stockroom space is so limited?" Actually, you probably have more space than you realize. You just need to learn to use it efficiently. Here's how:
- Go vertical
It can be difficult to avoid accidentally combining or mixing up different products in your stockroom if you're trying to cram lots of inventory into a small space, but you'll have more room if you go vertical. Combined with the use of modular stockroom shelving to keep you organized, you'll have plenty of room to keep your inventory safe, secure, and accounted for.
Raise your shelving units' heights as high as you can while still ensuring that your staff is safe. The higher you can go above eye level with your shelving units, the better.
- Use mobile shelving units, or "carriage systems"
Mobile shelving units called "carriage systems" are stockroom shelving units on wheels. They come in two different types. They will either move freely around the floor on wheels, or can be placed on tracks, depending on what you require.
Mobile shelving units let you place shelving units very close together (in effect vertically stacked next to each other) without the need for "aisles" of space between them. When you need something from a particular shelving unit, simply move units back or forth as required to access what you need, and then push them back together to open up floor space. Today's mobile units come with "smooth stop" functionality so that you can move the units as you need to without worrying about disturbing your inventory. By doing this, you increase your usable floor space by as much as 50%.
Your stockroom may be small, but that doesn't mean it has to be difficult to keep stockroom shelving tidy and organized for best efficiency. The right storage systems will help you make the best use of your space and keep your products organized so that you can account for them easily.
