Home construction relies on the decision of a single family — the one meant to live in it. When it comes to building and warehouse construction, the decision is in the hands of the company owner, architects, and however many others are part of the project completion.
It may sound more complicated to have several heads, but in the long run, it benefits the company. Here are some crucial parts of the warehouse that need everyone’s input:
Staircase
Not everything will be stored on ground level for safety reasons or to simply save space. You may even need a mezzanine where you can see everything that is laid down on the ground, from one end to another.
To access that elevated level, you will need a staircase, and it should not be the temporary, retractable kind either. For warehouse stairs, industrial quality materials should be used. You may be hauling heavy equipment or boxes up the second level, and a rickety chair may simply be prone to accidents.
As one of the most important parts of the warehouse, staircases should be planned and constructed to the highest standards. Otherwise, you may be setting your workplace up for accidents.
Exits
Just as you need to know the basic layout for the space to determine how the warehouse should be constructed, you also need to know what goes in and out of the warehouse to figure out where doors should be positioned.
If you always haul heavy boxes in and out of the warehouse, you need big doors connected to a ramp for easier movement. If safety is a major concern, you want doors positioned in such a way that you can easily see if anyone has opened one without permission. Your company vehicles also need to have enough space for loading without obstructing anyone’s view of the activity happening inside the car.
Layout
The general layout has much to do with the workflow, which means the architect needs to collaborate with the floor manager to have an idea of what will happen on a regular working day. It would be pointless to construct an important location such as a warehouse without tailoring it to fit the activities it was built for.
You might think you just need a big open space, and that doesn’t require much, but if you’re planning to fill it with equipment and conveyor belts, you need to put some thought into where power strips should be located.
Parking
Part of the reason you’re building a warehouse is to ensure business operations run smoothly without compromising product quality. That means you also want to deliver products from the warehouse to the business locations on a set schedule with ease.
This will be hard to do if you did not plan for sufficient parking space and movement while loading vehicles. If there is a bottleneck happening when all vehicles are awaiting shipment, it will take longer to load everything and get on with delivery. That means precious time lost, and in business, time is money.
There is much to think about when planning to add a new warehouse to your business operations. Let everyone contribute their ideas to come up with an optimal layout.
Read more at Happy Knits.
