Businesses need the most affordable, spacious, and effective warehouse facilities to store inventories on a small to large scale. In search of the best places and locations for warehouses, entrepreneurs overlook the designs and shapes of the facilities. The different shapes of warehouses make different facilities easy to access. Which type of warehouse do you need? Let’s dig down to understand the different shapes of warehouses and learn a few tips to choose the best facility for your business.

The Most Prevalent Warehouse Designs

Engineers design different types of warehouses based on available space, business needs, and transport routes. The three most prevalent warehouse designs are I-shaped, L-shaped, and U-shaped warehouses. This section elaborately discusses these warehouse designs to help you choose the best solution for your business. 

1. I-Shaped Design

These warehouses are effective for storing high-volume stocks. They have three key segments located sequentially. The frontal phase has a loading and unloading area, the middle section has a storage facility, and the backend section has a shipping facility. I-shaped warehouses ensure easy retrieval of high-volume products.

Reputed industrial real estate companies in Kolkata follow this warehouse design, as it requires smaller space accommodation compared to L-shaped or U-shaped warehouses. Businesses find this design easier to operate, as well as load and ship products, as the two dedicated workloads have different physical positions. Thus, the system helps to streamline the process conveniently and affordably. 

2. L-Shaped Design

The L-shaped warehouse design offers ample space for storing products. At one extended end, the warehouse facilitates loading and reception areas, whereas, on the other end, the L-shape facilitates the packing and shipping of products.

This type of warehouse in Kolkata requires efficient space for trucks without congesting the transit areas. Industrial real estate companies prefer designing L-shaped warehouses when there are enough provisions to allow passage for transport. Otherwise, the cost of operating the warehouse facility will increase due to increased complexity and time for loading, unloading, and shipping products.

3. U-Shaped Design

Industrial real estate service providers find a U-shaped design easier to accommodate. The two ends of the U have separated loading-unloading and shipping fronts. Behind the loading area, the warehouse accommodates the reception area. Behind the shipping point, the warehouse accommodates the packaging area.

Industrial real estate owners easily manage two separated transit areas situated side by side for different operations. This facility is cost-effective and convenient for both businesses and commercial space operators. 

Tips to Improve the Design of Your Warehouse

 

1. Avoid Bottlenecks by Keeping Enough Space for Loading and Unloading

The critical focus for efficient management of the warehouse should be to ease the bottleneck. The congestion in the movement of materials will result in increased time, cost, and effort. Therefore, when the loading and shipping points are adjacent to the warehouse, storing the unloaded materials before shifting to the warehouse becomes challenging.

After unloading the products from trucks, the warehouse staff needs to check the details of the products received before finally storing them. Similarly, businesses require proper packaging and labelling to deliver any product. That is why there must be enough space for sorting and packaging products.

When the warehouses have distant shipping and loading centres, the businesses find enough space to do the necessary tasks apart from stocking products. They can accommodate reception centres to keep products after unloading and packaging facilities before despatching the products.

Most of the warehouses in Kolkata, which have separated loading and shipping points away from the storage facility, follow a two-step approach to moving products. First, they shuttle the products from trucks to the reception area and then from reception to the storage space. However, in the case of built-in loading and shipping facilities, due to a lack of space, products need to move directly to and from storage space.

2. Maintain a Dedicated Reception Area

Check if the prospective warehouse facility in Kolkata has a large reception area. The space helps to sort and inspect the unloaded products. The ample space in the reception area will remove the bottleneck from the system and make the operations efficient.

If the facility does not offer a dedicated reception area, check if the warehouse has the required space to accommodate the sorting and inspecting operations after unloading products. Otherwise, you need to look for appropriate alternatives.

3. Organize the Storage Area

Industrial real estate service providers would offer you the space. However, it would help if you organize the storage area to meet every business need. How would you do that? Here is the solution!

Check the height of the warehouse, as you will need to accommodate increasing inventories vertically with a growing business. Moreover, certain products have high demand, and certain products have low. 

Dynamic products move fast in the inventory, whereas static products keep the space for an extended period. Design the inventory so that the movement of dynamic stocks becomes easier and obstacle-free. These products must be accessible in terms of reach, position, and other facilities. Effectively sorting the inventory helps achieve operational efficiency effortlessly. 

4. Maintain a Separate Picking Area

The picking area must be close to the storage space to facilitate easy access and swift delivery. However, before moving to the picking area, the items must pass through the packaging and labelling phase.

If the warehouse needs to accommodate more space for packaging and labelling, you must ensure that the team performs the tasks without moving the items farther away from the warehouse and picking spots.

Therefore, before buying industrial real estate to develop your warehouse facility, check if all the provisions are available to maintain the operations effectively without creating any bottlenecks.

5. Adjust the Packing and Shipping Area

Regardless of the shape and size of Kolkata’s warehouses, check if there are separate packing and shipping areas. Reducing bottlenecks in warehouse operations is necessary. Separate space will help reduce errors, loading time, congestion, and various other faults that can impact your overall business operations.

If the industrial real estate service providers offer overlapped packing and shipping areas, make necessary adjustments to separate the two operational points. Otherwise, look for other alternatives to access the most efficient warehouse for your business.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing a spacious and affordable warehouse in Kolkata, trust Ganesh Complex, an eminent name in industrial real estate, offers highly equipped and efficient warehouse facilities in Kolkata and Howrah. With easy access to train, bus, air, and water routes, our facilities can help you reduce the cost of operations and make your business more profitable. Choose Ganesh Complex for a reliable and secure warehouse solution.