About
One of the most complicated projects I was given as a young man was the task of taking an awful warehouse and making it into a working, functioning storage facility. There were a whole lot of lessons involved in this and many of them were management based.Lot's of the process was complicated because the budget for the project was very low.
The major plan was to empty out the warehouse while actually keeping any profitable inventory. In some peoples minds everything was profitable and then once it was all organized we were to then build shelving racks in order to make it a working storage and shipping facility.
This task was the first major ordeal that I was to be put in charge of and it was complicated due to the scale of the location. This was a 15 thousand square foot building that was stacked from the floor to the ceiling with products. These products ranged from aging back to the 1920's all the way to present day. It was a wild location and the worth of the products varied greatly. One piece of junk could be worth 1000 dollars or a penny. Now that the scale of the location makes a bit of sense the next plan was to first make a path. This literally consisted of throwing items as high as we could get them to make space to work. It took days to clear a path and then the boxing began.
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The major plan was to empty out the warehouse while actually keeping any profitable inventory. In some peoples minds everything was profitable and then once it was all organized we were to then build shelving racks in order to make it a working storage and shipping facility.
This task was the first major ordeal that I was to be put in charge of and it was complicated due to the scale of the location. This was a 15 thousand square foot building that was stacked from the floor to the ceiling with products. These products ranged from aging back to the 1920's all the way to present day. It was a wild location and the worth of the products varied greatly. One piece of junk could be worth 1000 dollars or a penny. Now that the scale of the location makes a bit of sense the next plan was to first make a path. This literally consisted of throwing items as high as we could get them to make space to work. It took days to clear a path and then the boxing began.
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We ended up using hundreds of cardboard boxes to sort piece by piece. Then when we got a whole box of one item that was worth selling we would label it and stack it. We continued this process for months. The real complicated part was the decision making process of what to keep and what not too keep. Since the amount of product was so much we decided it was simply best to make space by trashing product that had little to no value. This was hard to get past upper management but no space could be made for shelves or shipping locations if things were not eliminated. It was a cost analysis and it ended up costing thousands in dumpsters to remove old products.
What was surprising was the amount of space it took to store the gear. The cardboard boxes actually increased the space needed. The organization was amazing, but the space was never full for a period of time in the box and it simply was not going to be able to be stacked on top of each other for long term storage.
Finally we started to build shelving once we cleared a 5 foot section all the way to the back of the warehouse. Then we would store all the gear for the next 5 foot section and put it on the original shelving. From here we were able to then create a new space to build another row of shelves. Now we did have to clear a path to work and store at the front of the warehouse as well. This was an area that we could not clutter up because then we would be back at square one. Yes, this was a lesson we learned the hard way. So I hope this process helps you in your warehouse ventures in the future.
What was surprising was the amount of space it took to store the gear. The cardboard boxes actually increased the space needed. The organization was amazing, but the space was never full for a period of time in the box and it simply was not going to be able to be stacked on top of each other for long term storage.
Finally we started to build shelving once we cleared a 5 foot section all the way to the back of the warehouse. Then we would store all the gear for the next 5 foot section and put it on the original shelving. From here we were able to then create a new space to build another row of shelves. Now we did have to clear a path to work and store at the front of the warehouse as well. This was an area that we could not clutter up because then we would be back at square one. Yes, this was a lesson we learned the hard way. So I hope this process helps you in your warehouse ventures in the future.