What's Going Wrong In Your Stock Room?

Collaborative Post

Most businesses have a stock room of some kind, whether it’s a full scale warehouse or a small and simple stock cupboard in the back of the office.

Either way, both of these rooms need to be coordinated.

Without a proper management system, a lot can go wrong. Theft, wastage, loss, breakages - there’s quite a few expensive mishaps on the call list.

Even if you haven’t run into these problems quite yet, if you’re not organizing your stock room in an efficient and measured way, they could hit you all at once at some point in the future.

So let’s think about the possibility right now; what’s going wrong in your stock room?

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You Don’t Know Where Anything is

What kind of stock management system do you use? A simple list of what you’ve got in stock, where you can cross off anything that’s been sold or thrown out?

Sounds easy enough to follow, but this doesn’t provide the level of detail you need. You need to know the specifics, so you can quickly find what you need from just matching the list item to the shelf number.

Perishable Stock is Left to Waste

Perishable stock exists in many forms, from food and drink to hygiene and bathroom products. If it has a sell by date on it, or a shelf life symbol on it, it’s perishable in some form or another. And you can’t sell perishable stock, in any good faith.

But if your stock room isn’t accounting for these dates, you’re not going to be able to sell any of this stock at all.

And trust us, it’s easier to forget about these deadlines than you might think. If items aren’t unboxed properly once they’re in the stock room, for example, they could fall into ‘out of sight, out of mind territory’.

And because of that, it’s best to have select storage shelving, boxes, and/or trays for perishable goods. A set of plastic bale arm trays, that are all uniform in color, make sure perishable items are always on your mind when you’re checking on the stock room.

It’s Difficult to Move Around

No one will want to go into the stock room if there’s a chance something could fall on your head if you breathe a bit too loudly. Nor will you want to go through the stock room if you can’t move without snagging a box on your clothing.

If it’s difficult to move around, it’s not a nice place to work. And it could even be an unsafe place to work, depending on what you’ve got in storage. Stock rooms should be easy to access once you’re inside.

It shouldn’t take much effort to get from one side to the other, and if ladders are required, they’re easy to secure to the side of the shelf.

There could be a lot going wrong in your stock room. Check your storage system and traffic flow to see where the cracks lie.

—End of collaborative post—

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