With rental rates soaring in 2024 and floor space waning, what are your options to ensure you're getting the most out of your warehouse space? The best thing for you to do as a business is to look inward to your partner in warehouse space optimization – McGee!

It is often said that the sales pitch that was purchased was much better than the reality. Why is that? Sales and sales support work up a solution, presenting spreadsheets and drawings. A great deal of collaborative dialogue goes into the best solution to meet the client's needs and desires. A purchase order is cut…and then it's time to fulfill the solution.

Last November, I took a snapshot in time comparing the state of the material handling industry and its supply chain pre-COVID to late 2021. It's time for another snapshot as to the current "state of the union".

One of the biggest efficiency questions that our clients must answer when optimizing their workspace is the question of how product will be moved from one place to the next. Options range from completely people-powered to fully automated robots that auto-navigate around a warehouse, but the practicality and potential for each option is defined by each client's specific needs and working space. Let's take a look at some of the different varieties of product movement solutions and how they may help solve challenges within your workspace:  

At McGee Storage and Handling, we work with a variety of industries and we've seen that many of our clients across the board have a common challenge: to optimize the pick locations at floor level. Typically, pallets are stored above in a secondary location and then the product is let down per product or by the case to a location that can be reached at floor level, which is the primary pick location. I acknowledge that there are warehouse automation options that bring parts to the pickers, which can often be cost-justified, but the focus of this blog is to provide a variety of storage options for floor picking. 

The movement of goods throughout your warehouse space is likely the biggest area of possible cost reduction in your facility. If your product is fairly consistent in size/weight and you have a refined conveyor system moving product throughout the warehouse, there is no reason to read on – for the rest of you…stick around! 

The ability to manage inventory movement (receive, pick, put, relocate, etc.) properly in an operation has always called for a substantial investment. Software suppliers often come with promises of a return on your investment that sounds a bit too good to be true (and most often are). Many Warehouse Management System (WMS) suppliers offer robust solutions that require expensive integration, hardware, and maintenance. 

Good news – there is an alternative, and it comes at a fraction of the cost: It's called WarehouseOS. This powerful system is simply deployed on tablets, making it affordable and powerful. 

By switching to this tablet-based WMS, your pick rates can increase to upwards of 400 picks per hour (per picker), which is more than double the rate of picking from paper or an RF gun.

When you find your business sits within a rising industry sector, you take the opportunity to invest in the growth of your business. This can take on various forms as you may acquire more product lines or customer projects. Perhaps you plan on expanding marketing campaigns, sales channels or e-commerce initiatives, all of which contribute toward increased sales. Time to celebrate! 

The Material Handling Industry represents a vast array of equipment, inventory storage products, engineered systems and automated picking and handling solutions.  Most people, when looking for a material handling solution provider, will start with the basics.  Our clients typically find us (McGee Storage and Handling) when they search basic keywords or phrases such as "Pallet Racking", "Warehouse Rack", "Material Handling", "Mezzanines", "Conveyor", "Industrial Shelving", "Panelized Buildings". "Parts Picking" , "Warehouse Management Systems" and so on.  When you add a zip code (or city) representing the location of your facility the results are narrowed for you and presented on your monitor.  Gone are the days of flipping through weighty pages of hard copy "Yellow Page" directories in search of a business that might be able to help you.

So where exactly do you start in search of a reputable Material Handling Solution Provider?

Ask yourself, What is most important? 

Have you decided to add another level for storage space, assembly, or simply to scale "up"? No matter the reason for adding a mezzanine level, you've made the decision to take advantage of underutilized cube space in your facility. Creating square footage under the existing footprint is a logical growth step, especially when compared to the expense of building or moving your operation. 

You may be wondering, "What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for the distribution and supply chain industry?" We will touch on the role of supply chain management in our current circumstances and how this chain will develop as a result of the current high demand.