We all have to roll our sleeves up and get stuck into some spring cleaning at home sooner or later, but what about warehouse cleaning?
A warehouse is a large and busy space that deserves attention, especially around the busy dusty summer season.
Scheduling a quarterly re-organisation and deep clean session for your companies warehouse is vital. You should always plan to keep everything nice, safe and efficient all year round.
Warehouse Cleaning! Plan ahead
Always start your warehouse cleaning with a plan. Common methods include cleaning around normal business operations and out of normal house. This is so that you do not compromise any existing routines or mess up the current workflow.
Don’t forget to include external areas in your warehouse cleaning plan, particularly car parks, loading bays and visitor welcome booths.
Neat and tidy
A tidy warehouse will help business operations move faster and more effectively.
Work out where everything should live and work your way round the warehouse, systematically to make sure everything is stored correctly.
Safe designated areas must be provided for equipment and machinery. Stock should be arranged in safe, sturdy racks and shelves, carefully labelled and organised.
We suggest that popular products are organised so they are the easiest to access.
Labels and signs
Take a careful look at your labels, signs and floor markings. Are they clear enough?
Consider bringing in a professional line marking expert to refresh your lines and advise on suitable signage. Don’t forget to check your safety signage, including fire exit routes, emergency directional signs, and vehicle and pedestrian segregation floor markings.
Less is more
Set aside some time to declutter the warehouse. Working areas often produce a lot of paper packaging, cardboard boxes and plastic shrink wrap, make sure this is cleared away into the correct area.
Dispose of any broken machinery or damaged stock, along with empty chemical storage containers or discarded wooden pallets.
Removing clutter means fewer accidents from slips, trips and falls, which is a goal every company must strive to do.
Personal touch
Employees should be tasked with keeping their own areas of work clean.
Provide waste bins and/or recycling facilities for easy disposal of food and drink packaging and personal rubbish.
Make sure you provide an easy place to drop oily rages, dirty overalls, gloves etc. This allows them to be placed in one area at the end of a shift and easily gathered up for removal or washing off-site.
Encourage all employees toreport or wipe up spills straight away.