With so many moving parts (literally), warehouse operations must improve efficiency to save time and money. One of the best ways to create a more efficient warehouse space for your business is to invest in high-quality mechanical equipment that can either automate or support warehouse operations for a safer, faster, and more efficient workplace.
To take a load off the employees (again, literally), every warehouse should consider outfitting their operations with warehouse lifting equipment.
What is Warehouse Lifting Equipment?
Warehouse lifting equipment refers to any machine or device used to lift and move items throughout a warehouse environment. There are four main types of warehouse lifting equipment:
- Cranes: Large warehouse lifting equipment used for lifting and moving very heavy objects to higher levels.
- Scissor Lifts: Most frequently used to raise warehouse workers up to higher shelves or locations in the warehouse, scissor lifts have an x-frame that expands or contracts as it is raised or lowered.
- Lift Tables: These lifts are very similar to scissor lifts, except that they move personnel or goods across smaller distances, usually for the purpose of loading vehicles or work positioning.
Choosing the right warehouse lifting equipment for your business will depend on your specific needs and what solutions are available to meet those needs.
Five Ways Warehouse Lifting Equipment Improves Efficiency
Whether you add a single scissor lift or an entire fleet of warehouse lifting equipment to your warehouse space, every change can make a huge difference for your workplace efficiency. Here are five ways warehouse lifting equipment can improve efficiency and benefit your warehouse overall:
1. Lightens the Load on Warehouse Workers
Warehouses that do not have the proper lifting equipment still require products and goods to be moved throughout the space, resulting in a lot of manual labor on the part of warehouse employees. Even if the goods in your warehouse are relatively lightweight, that’s a lot of lifting and carrying and moving for workers to handle every single day without any lifting machinery to support them. Providing even simple warehouse lifting equipment for your employees makes their jobs less strenuous and improves employee satisfaction.
2. Speeds Up Operating Processes
Warehouse lifting equipment can lift and move goods from point A to point B much more quickly than an individual carrying one box at a time can! When goods are able to move where they need to go at a faster pace, you are increasing lead times and making every minute spent on lifting much more cost-effective. Time is money, of course! And warehouse lifting equipment makes it so you don’t have to spend as much of it on internal warehousing processes.
3. Protects Items Being Moved
Because it is built to efficiently and securely move goods, warehouse lifting equipment is very reliable and trustworthy when it comes to the safety of the items being lifted and moved. An employee may trip and drop fragile items, but warehouse lifting equipment is built with safety precautions in mind to hold goods firm and protected as they’re being lifted or moved.
4. Increases Workplace Safety
Making their lives easier isn’t the only thing about warehouse lifting equipment your employees will love: it makes for a safer workplace too! Manual labor always involves some level of risk, and when warehouse workers are fully responsible for all lifting and moving, this risk is significantly higher. However, when employees have the assistance of capable lifting equipment designed to bear the brunt of the load, the workplace becomes much less hazardous.
5. Customizable to Your Needs
No two warehouses are alike, and each one will have a unique set of needs surrounding the layout, goods being lifted, moved, and stored, and other operating nuances. Warehouse lifting equipment is a very broad category covering a number of solutions that can be combined to best suit the needs of your warehouse. An industrial equipment supplier with mechanical engineering expertise can help you create a material handling process from start to finish that will help you get the most out of your warehouse.
Create a More Efficient Business with Warehouse Lifting Equipment
If any or all of the above benefits sound appealing to you, it may be time to upgrade your warehouse with the proper lifting equipment! At Mathews Mechanical, we provide a full suite of material handling and warehouse lifting equipment along with custom fabrications to design a warehouse space that works with your business goals and needs. In addition to this initial installation and set-up of new equipment, we offer 24/7 emergency service to guarantee your equipment is always at peak performance.
Give us a call at 510-475-9950 to learn more about the material handling solutions we offer!
