ideas for keeping your warehouse clean.

Warehouse Cleaning Tips

Cleaner more organised warehousing operations outperform dirty cluttered facilities in every case.

Measuring the efficiency of any warehouse or manufacturing facility can be defined by how clean it is.

Cleaner warehousing and manufacturing operations are far more productive, cost effective and safer not to mention happier places when everything is more organised.

Every warehousing application is different and whether your floors are brand new smooth and shiny or old worn out and dull, keeping the accumulation of debris and soiling under control offers more benefits than you might think. 

Staff operating in poorly organised facilities can lead to safety issues such as slip and fall related problems, breathing problems due to poor air quality leading to excessive staff sick days, and often ignored are morale issues with employees demotivated with no pride in their work due to poor conditions. 

Dust resting on pallet racking and on products has an impact to the overall operating costs of any business. 

Signs of dust everywhere signals lots of airborne pollution. This dust is generated from many factors such as constant fork lift truck traffic, and ventilation, cooling and heating systems circulating dust from the roof beams to the floors. Excessive airborne dust causes lighting issues, potential fire hazards, excessive maintenance with materials handling equipment and product damage. Dust can create many problems in a warehousing facility, it is abrasive and acts like a grinding paste on mechanical components on fork lift trucks, leading to oil leaks that cause slip and fall risks that lead to life threatening issues and lawsuits, and this poses a REAL threat that many companies today still risk on a daily basis. Thankfully this kind of problem is rare, but it is vital to risk assess your individual situation to protect the safety of your staff plus the image and reputation of your business.

On the other hand enforcing a clean facility with housekeeping rules, can result in consistent leadership, a pleasant well lit place to work in with less downtime of machinery and reduced facility maintenance costs. If your business has customers visit you or potential clients, does a better image count for a lot in todays competitive marketplace.? We think so. 

So lets take a look at how any warehouse however big or small, can create a cleaner more organised workplace without investing too much time or money. Creating this kind of environment, will reduce the annual operating costs of any facility simply based on common sense housekeeping practices.

Warehouse Cleaning Tips 

1. Plan, Measure and Set Targets - Set out to think prevention rather than cure. It is much easier to keep a cleaner warehouse clean than have a periodic deep clean, and why would you want your warehouse dirty for half the year when you can keep on top of things daily without any major fuss. Letting dirt accumulate takes a lot more effort and time to get rid of, so assign cleaning tasks on a daily, weekly, monthly & quarterly basis giving each task priority. If you sweep or scrub clean your floors daily with less dust accumulation, cleaning dust from racking and safety barriers etc, might only be required on a yearly basis, so think about what needs cleaning and how often, then set out a cleaning rotation diary. When you start to keep on top of your cleaning duties this might help to highlight other maintenance issues that need attention such as floor repairs, racking repairs, and lighting maintenance etc, and help keep operational costs under control much easier.
2. Empty the rubbish regularly - Depending on the size of your warehouse and the types of debris present, having cleaning stations with a waste bin, brush and shovel located at the end of racking aisles can help to keep areas cleaner and easier to maintain. Keep the bins emptied regularly and don't let them overflow - stick to a plan.
3. Develop an “ON DEMAND” cleaning mentality - Clean as required and finish the cleaning task completely before moving on to some other tasks to avoid accumulations building up and becoming overbearing on time. Keep on top of cleaning tasks as set out in your targets.
4. Create employee cleaning zones - Having staff responsible for their own areas of cleaning will help reduce the workload on both staff and labour cost in time spent cleaning. Create a blameless cleaning culture by ensuring staff carry out their cleaning duties and not leave them for the next shift . Keeping simple documentation for tasks and check lists works to ensure things get done according to plan. Keeping tasks simple makes it easy to execute effectively, sweeping floors with the mechanical sweeper, litter picking shrink wrap and banding prior to wet cleaning of the floors using a scrubber dryer, wiping down equipment, emptying coffee cups and bins at cleaning stations etc, all work to better leadership within the team.
5. Making cleaning equipment and supplies readily available - If your asking someone to jump on a sweeper or scrubber dryer make sure the equipment is fully charged and ready to work and close to the areas of cleaning to reduce the cleaning times, and also keep the morale of the staff high. Waste bins, shovels and brushes should be located as close to the place of work to avoid spills. Using the right cloths, cleaning detergents and brushes or pads on cleaning equipment ensures better cleaning results and lower consumable costs.
6. Get Rid on all unnecessary clutter - Everyone has junk! Having boxes of old products or old redundant stock or equipment gathers dust. By removing as much as possible naturally creates a cleaner more organised workspace so throw out the stuff you don't need or use anymore.
7. Keep on top of cleaning equipment checks & maintenance - In nearly all warehousing & manufacturing operations more than 3,000 square feet or so, using mechanical cleaning machines to carry out daily or weekly floor cleaning duties is essential to provide the cleaning results mops and brooms cant offer. Mechanical cleaning machines save time and money so keeping them working by carrying our daily and weekly checks by having them serviced regularly makes perfect sense. Cleaning machines work best if they are cleaned out immediately after every clean, checked as required and put on charge for the next shift. Implement a system using an operators check list to make sure they keep on top of emptying water tanks and loose debris from sweeper bins, cleaning filters and squeegee blades will result in cleaner floors and lower maintenance costs. Have staff sign in and out for machines by managing the keys, so in the event of machine failure the cleaning equipment supplier can manage operator training with the staff who need it.

Keeping a clean safe warehouse helps drive efficiency throughout the operation and significantly reduces operational costs, for more information on how to keep your facility clean, get in touch with us, call 01942 834132 or send us an email here.

Author.

Jason Atherton. Managing Director 

North West Cleaning Solution Ltd, Unit 2 Appleton Street, Wigan, WN3 4BZ. 

Website: www.nwcs-ltd.co.uk