Before a warehouse is ready for accurate receiving, shipping, and overall inventory management there are steps that need to be taken.
- Clean the warehouse
- Make sure aisles are clear by storing loose products into locations on storage racks
- Discard any items that are not needed for fulfilling orders (this includes packaging and products that will not be sold/sent out again)
- If you have not yet purchased storage racks, this would be the time to do so
- Decide on a Warehouse Location Naming Convention
- Most companies use numbers, letters, or a combination of both to indicate the aisle, column, bay, specific bin locations, etc.
- Included below is a common example of how bin locations may be named in a warehouse:
The naming convention for the location of Aisle 1, Bay A, Row 2, Bin 5 would be 1-A-2-5
3. Apply Location Name and Barcode Labels
- It is best to print the label with the location name visible and a large enough barcode that can be scanned for easy location identification