With the increasing demand for digital commerce businesses to cater to an ever-growing number of customers, inventory management nowadays needs to be faster and more efficient than ever. Retrieving and processing orders are expected to be done quickly to keep up with customer expectations, hence why many businesses are now looking into machinery such as order picker forklifts to help them increase their warehouse productivity. An order picker forklift allows for faster and more accurate order picking, which means businesses would be able to fulfil their large number of customer orders without any delays.
If your business is having a hard time keeping up with orders, then integrating order picker forklifts into your warehouse operations may just be the solution you’re looking for. Here are some reasons why investing in an order picker forklift—or a fleet of them—can significantly help improve your operations.
- Increases Operational Efficiency
Order picker forklifts enable your workers to quickly navigate the warehouse to retrieve needed orders with ease and precision. This sets a stark difference compared to manual picking, where your workers will have to spend much longer time searching dozens of warehouse shelves to retrieve the right product.
Thanks to the efficiency that order picker forklifts offer, your business can fulfil orders at a faster rate and thus keep customer satisfaction high. Fast order fulfilment means being able to process more orders in a day as well, which then improves your warehouse’s overall productivity.
- Improves Worker Safety
Safety should always be a priority in any warehouse. However, with some items being shelved at higher storage levels, workers tasked with manual order picking may be at risk of falling or losing their balance. Thus, having an order picker forklift onsite allows your workers to reach those heights and pick orders while standing on a more stable platform, reducing the likelihood of falls and injuries. Moreover, using forklifts for order picking gives your workers better visibility, which can be crucial in high-density storage environments to avoid accidents. This is because rather than carrying the retrieved products that can block their view, they’re able to set them down on the pallet attached to the forklift instead.
These forklifts also carry various other safety features to give your workers additional peace of mind as they go about their warehouse duties. Such features include safety lights, harnesses, side gates to prevent accidental falls, sensors that optimise forklift speed and acceleration to avoid collisions, and a pallet clamp to also ensure the safety of the goods being transported.
- Maximises Warehouse Vertical Storage
Warehouses without any proper means to reach higher storage levels may be forced to keep their items on lower shelves only, thus not being able to maximise their warehouse space. With order picker forklifts, you’ll be able to maximise vertical storage in your warehouse as your workers can rely on the machine to help them reach the higher shelves. Moreover, this lets businesses with smaller warehouses stock more products and handle larger volumes without additional real estate expenses.
- Reduces Labour Costs
As your workers increase their order picking capacity with the help of order picker forklifts, you can also reduce the number of people needed to handle inventory without sacrificing productivity. This helps you save on labour costs and also lets you allocate your workers to other essential tasks in the warehouse instead. Hence, you’re able to maximise your current workforce without feeling the need to hire more hands just to keep up with high order volumes.
- Enhances Accuracy in Order Fulfilment
Manual picking can be more prone to human errors as fatigue sets in to your workers after long periods of working. This can snowball into more issues such as delayed deliveries, incorrect shipments, and customer dissatisfaction. Having the aid of an order picker forklift can help minimise these errors as your workers can just focus on checking which orders to retrieve without the added stress of navigating the warehouse on foot and climbing ladders to reach high storage shelves.
- Quicker Inventory Turnover
With faster and more accurate order picking, you can expect quicker turnover for your inventory as well. This can help you free up shelves for restocks, which is especially useful for businesses with limited warehouse space. Quicker inventory turnover also promises better cash flow as you manage to turn your stocks into profit much faster rather than have them stuck due to the inability to move stocks fast enough.
- Higher Employee Satisfaction Level
Having order picker forklifts in the warehouse makes the job less physically demanding for your workers, allowing them to be more efficient with their work without additional stress. This could lead to higher job satisfaction and lower employee turnover rates. Moreover, knowing that their employer cares about their safety to invest in machinery that can reduce the strain of their repetitive manual task and reduce risks of accidents can certainly be a great motivator, resulting in a more positive working environment.
Investing in order picker forklifts can significantly improve your warehouse operations, allowing your workers to go about their order picking tasks with more precision and faster turnaround times. You also make your warehouses much safer, thus improving worker well-being and reducing injury-related costs on your part. So, if you feel like your warehouse could use a productivity and safety upgrade, then contact your trusted machinery and equipment dealer to see how you can get your own order picker forklifts today.
