The first part of this article focussed on best practices for warehousing from a cost effective designing perspective. Let’s look at some of the other ingredients which go into making a world class warehousing and its management.

From an energy efficiency standpoint, warehouse should be designed with passive solar concepts especially the solar geometry in mind. It should possess light colour roof to reflect a large percentage of solar radiation, reducing HVAC loads, and energy consumption. This way cost is also reduced, due to the smaller plant size requirement. When a large roof area is anticipated, this effect can be significant, especially for temperature controlled warehouses. Greater heat reflection will increase worker productivity in the summer. It should also use ceiling mounted fans to reduce heat stratification and provide air movement, thus increasing worker comfort in both summer and winter.

One can also consider specifying white painted metal roof decking, which increases ceiling surface reflectivity, lighting efficiency, and worker comfort without any added energy cost. From safety/ security perspective, addressing the traditional life-safety and health concerns including measures to prevent occupational injuries and illnesses goes a long way in ensuring safety of the workers as well as eliminating exposure to hazardous materials. Inadequate fire safety provisions, improper blocking of exit and egress paths, chemical exposure, improper use of lockout procedures, lack of ergonomics, and failure to wear personal protective equipments are some of the serious operational safety problems.

Incorporating proper signage to clearly warn of hazards or to direct personnel to take precautions can avoid serious accidents in warehousing operations. The specific strategy for the warehouses signs must be determined early in the facility design process. Possess non-slip surface treatments on floors subject to wetting, such as outdoor docks, to eliminate slips and falls to personnel. Inclusion of appropriate security systems should be incorporated into the overall warehouse design. From a comfort point of view, proper ventilation should be there under all circumstances. Provision of exhausts, installing carbon dioxide sensors to monitor air quality, considering different natural lighting designs, minimizing HVAC system noise ensures conducive work environment.

To get the most out of warehouse and their operations, these best practices can be adopted to improve productivity and overall customer satisfaction.