When you are thinking about the design of your warehouse or commercial building it is imperative to think about the future expansion of your business and the potential your property holds for future development. The ‘it’s ok for now….’ could be a extremely costly.
Designing your warehouse or office space is not a task that should be taken lightly, there are many factors that should be considered when undertaking such a huge project.
Your focus should be on ensuring that your office space is designed in a functional and efficient way and provides a safe and comfortable working environment for your employees. With warehouse design it is also important to consider ways of designing your space so that you can benefit from an increase in productivity and reduce your overall costs. And, although you may ‘just’ be running a warehouse, your corporate image should be maintained at all times.
The design needs of your space will obviously vary depending on the operation of your business and warehouse – from storage space to loading docks to office space and industrial work areas, each section should be carefully considered and optimised for future growth.
Creating a warehouse that is energy efficient is your number one way to reduce your costs, a simple technique for cutting costs and saving energy is to design your space low energy LED lighting. Traditionally warehouses have used mercury vapour lamps or sodium halide lights, both of these cast a cone shaped light which draw a huge amount of power, making them a less than efficient lighting solution for your warehouse.
Another option being used by some businesses include motion detectors to control their lighting, meaning when there has been no movement in a particular aisle of an amount of time the lights in this area switch off and automatically switch back on when the motion detector senses movement within the area.
Make sure your warehouse is designed to address health and safety and security concerns from electrical safety to exposure to hazardous materials. Docks, powered industrial trucks, conveyors, materials storage, manual lifting/handling, roof ladders and hatches, and charging stations are historically the main contributors of injuries within warehouse work environments – other typical risks come from inadequate fire safety provisions and blocking of paths and exit routes. Proper signage and non-slip surfaces should all be considered at the onset of the warehouse design.
Overall your warehouse working environment should be designed to ensure you, your employees and visitors to your site are safe and comfortable. Also, it is important to create a dynamic team environment, quality of staff will be the success of your business. Management and staff should develop a strong corporate culture and share common values, a strong sense of community in a warehouse environment drives performance as all efforts are aligned.