Your warehouse is an essential link in your supply chain, working efficiently can create competitive advantage, keep costs down and enhance the customer experience. We work with companies across many sectors to help improve warehouse processes to reduce costs, improve service and make the business more profitable.
Our expert warehouse logistics consultants are here to optimise your entire supply chain, helping to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. We offer tailored solutions for warehouse design, layout optimisation, inventory management, and technology integration. Our consultants will work with you to analyse your operations and identify areas for improvement, implement best practices, and deliver results. Whether you need to streamline your current operations or plan for future growth, we provide…
Our expert warehouse logistics consultants are here to optimise your entire supply chain, helping to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. We offer tailored solutions for warehouse design, layout optimisation, inventory management, and technology integration.
Our consultants will work with you to analyse your operations and identify areas for improvement, implement best practices, and deliver results. Whether you need to streamline your current operations or plan for future growth, we provide the expertise and support to meet your unique business needs and improve your overall business performance.
The role of warehousing in logistics
Warehousing plays a critical role in logistics by serving as a central hub for the storage, management, and distribution of goods. It ensures inventory is readily available, allowing for timely order fulfilment and efficient supply chain operations. Effective warehousing reduces lead times, lowers transportation costs, and enhances customer satisfaction by ensuring products are delivered quickly and accurately. At Hatmill, we’ll work with you to optimise your warehouse design, implement efficient…
Warehousing plays a critical role in logistics by serving as a central hub for the storage, management, and distribution of goods. It ensures inventory is readily available, allowing for timely order fulfilment and efficient supply chain operations. Effective warehousing reduces lead times, lowers transportation costs, and enhances customer satisfaction by ensuring products are delivered quickly and accurately.
At Hatmill, we’ll work with you to optimise your warehouse design, implement efficient processes, and integrate advanced technologies, ensuring your logistics operations are seamless and cost-effective. Our tailored solutions will help you to meet business demands and achieve operational excellence.
Process & considerations
The Hatmill approach to warehousing
Our process is built around your business. Helping you improve your warehousing capabilities, our team of experts help you streamline your operations and scale. Here’s how we do it:
Assessment & planning
We’ll begin by evaluating your current warehouse operations, including space utilisation, inventory levels, and process efficiency. We’ll use our industry benchmarks and our proprietary Operational Maturity Assessment Tool (O-MAT) to check your end-to-end warehouse operations.
Design & layout
We’ll then create an optimal warehouse design and layout that maximises space utilisation and enhances workflow efficiency. This sets out the most critical areas in the most appropriate locations to minimise travel distances in the warehouse.
Technology integration
We’ll then work with you to plan where technology can be deployed to improve inventory accuracy, streamline operations, and enhance overall efficiency. This might be a Warehouse Management System (WMS), some data analytics and dashboards to support decision making, or even QikPik, a quantum computing inspired bolt-on to WMSs that reduces pick walk distance.
Process optimisation
We will help you refine and standardise yourwarehouse processes such as receiving, putaway, picking, packing, and shipping – making your warehouse operation more reliable, predictable, efficient and effective.
Training & implementation
We’ll ensure your team is involved throughout the improvement process. We’ll use our change readiness assessment to guide the project on how to best engage the team and increase their skills. This delivers a competent, involved team working in a new way.
Continuous improvement
We’ll regularly review and analyse warehouse performance using key metrics to continuously identify opportunities for improvement and adapt strategies to maintain efficiency and meet evolving business needs.
“Hatmill helped us transition to a central distribution model. This involved managing the development of a new distribution centre, designing the processes, negotiating with suppliers, implementing a warehouse management system and supporting the operational team. I’ve been delighted with the projects we’ve done together.”
– Chief Financial Officer (leading auto parts distributor)
Designing and implementing improvements
Whether the challenge is around space constraints, out of control costs, poor productivity or inventory control, we will work with you and your operations teams to identify issues, design improvements and help you implement them.
Experienced, independent teams
No matter what the challenge, our experienced, independent teams can help to reconfigure existing warehousing space, improve slotting processes, review and optimise your WMS and even design and build new warehousing facilities. We’ll also help you assess how warehouse automation could help your business and can design, develop and implement your warehouse automation solution.
FAQs
What should you know?
What are the 3 key parts of warehousing in logistics?
While warehousing is complex, the 3 core elements are inventory management, order fulfilment, and facility operations.
1.Inventory management: This involves maintaining accurate records of stock levels, ensuring that inventory data is up-to-date and reliable. It includes tracking the movement of goods, managing stock levels to prevent overstock or stockouts, and utilising inventory management systems for real-time updates.
2.Order fulfillment: This process covers picking, packing, and shipping products to customers. Efficient order fulfilment ensures that orders are processed quickly and accurately, meeting customer expectations and reducing the likelihood of returns, damage or errors.
3.Facility operations: The organisation and accessibility of products and activities within your warehouse. It includes optimising the layout for efficient flow of goods, maintaining equipment, and ensuring safety and compliance with regulations. Effective facility operations maximise space utilisation and streamline the movement of goods within the warehouse.
What are the benefits of efficient warehouse logistics?
Efficient warehouse logistics offer numerous benefits, including reduced operational costs through optimised inventory management and space utilisation. Streamlined processes and advanced technologies minimise errors and increase productivity, allowing for better handling of order volumes. Efficient logistics also provide better visibility and control over your inventory, enabling proactive decision-making and quicker response to market changes. Overall, efficient warehouse logistics will support the scalable growth of your business and enhance your competitive edge.
Case studies
Our work
We helped a market leading kitchenware supplier merge two businesses and eight sites into one distribution centre and head office, helping to streamline their operations and make savings along the way.