Robust inventory management is a crucial part of apparel and garment warehouses. A well-organized warehouse is essential to the success of any apparel business. However, stock organization can be challenging, especially when dealing with an array of garments bound for different markets. You’ll need an excellent system and equipment tailored to suit your specific needs.
If you are a clothing manufacturer needing an ideal storage container to store small, hard-to-stack, or irregularly shaped inventory items, a warehouse bin from Flexcon is your best option. This article discusses ways to optimize your garment industry operations with warehouse bins.
What does inventory management in the apparel industry look like?
Inventory management refers to tracking, managing, and maintaining optimal inventory levels. Garment industry players leverage inventory management software to track inventories such as clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories as they move between locations. However, even with the most advanced systems, the apparel and garment industry still faces various warehouse challenges. The three most common warehouse management challenges include the following:
- Inventory inaccuracy: Manufacturers who lack complete inventory visibility often face the risk of running out of stock at the wrong time. Excess stock can pile up, which constrains cash flow. While inventory shortages lead to unfulfilled orders and poor customer experience, too much stock translates to poor liquidity and storage expenses.
- Lack of space: Efficient use of space is a critical factor in running a successful garment business. Unfortunately, many warehouses struggle with inadequate storage space due to inefficient planning. To ensure the best use of available space, warehouses must improve their storage systems.
- Garment defects: Defects could occur during manufacturing and when garments are in storage or transit. Possible manufacturing defects include faulty zippers, irregular hemming, loose buttons, raw edges, and improper button holes. Defects from storage spaces are primarily caused by surface imperfections, dust, and moisture.
Most of these problems can be solved using warehouse bins designed specifically for the garment industry.
What are warehouse bins?
Warehouse bins are plastic storage containers used to store inventory, items, and products. These containers are heavy-duty, reliable, and waterproof. They cannot rust, corrode or bend. They are easy to clean and resistant to chemicals. These containers can also be designed for use on a conveyor system, making it easy to mechanize your operations.
How to use warehouse bins in the garment industry
Warehouse bins designed for the garment industry make it easy to know where every item is stored and how to get to them, enabling you to fulfill more orders quickly and efficiently. You will also save money on labor because workers spend less time scouring the warehouse for items. With more efficient storage, you free up your staff to help with higher-value tasks.
The following are some of the ways warehouse bins help the garment industry:
Help protect garments from dust and moisture: Manufacturing environments can be quite dusty and dirty, which can damage your garments. Even when you are doing your best to keep the workplace immaculately clean, it is impossible to completely eradicate all the dust from production lines. Warehouse bins come with a corrugated plastic design to protect the items within from any dust, spillage or moisture that may be present in a warehouse. Warehouse bins from Flexcon come with different types of lids to allow you to seal your container and ensure inventory and other items are not damaged.
Protection from surface imperfections: Apart from dust and moisture, another type of damage that can be costly for garment manufacturers is surface scratches, blemishes, and imperfections. This damage results in garments being rejected or returned, leading to lost sales and written-off stocks. Warehouse bins help protect your garments from such surface imperfections. Using divider sets, bubble boards, and foam divider inserts eliminates the risk of damage, helping you avoid rejects and returns.
Keep the warehouse organized: Warehouse bins can help keep your workspace organized by eliminating clutter while making products easy to find and sort. A disorganized warehouse can significantly lower employee productivity by making it more challenging to locate inventory and items when needed. Warehouse bins feature a visible labeling space which helps you label each container clearly before lining them on the shelves. This way, a worker can quickly locate the item in need or return the item to its proper place.
Improve workplace safety: All workplaces, including warehouses, must meet OSHA safety standards. Having all your inventory and other items stored in warehouse bins helps eliminate common hazards and creates a safer working environment for your employees. Warehouse bins keep your equipment and supplies out of the way, preventing workers from tripping and falling on loose items.
Management of stock levels: When you think of stock level management, it is easy to assume software and systems take care of the entire process. However, apart from automated stock management, you will also require constant manual stock checking to ascertain what your system is giving you. The number of garment items placed in a warehouse bin can easily be manually checked to determine quantities and assess product state for quality control.
Better use of floor space: Warehouse bins solve the problem of limited shelf space while helping keep complex and hard-to-manage product lines together. Unlike cardboard boxes that can quickly clutter your spaces, warehouse bins stack together when not in use to save on floor space and keep the production line organized.
Minimize packaging waste: Warehouse bins can reduce packaging waste which is a win for the environment. Due to their durable nature, bins last longer than cardboard boxes. They can be used to transport garments between production facilities, eliminating the need to use single-trip packaging, which is often discarded after first use.
Optimize your warehouse operations with storage bins from Flexcon
Garments and other accessories in your clothing line need to be efficiently stored and protected from dust, moisture, and germs. At Flexcon, we provide warehouses and distribution centers with durable, heavy-duty, and tailor-made warehouse bins to help optimize their supply chain. Our storage bins can maximize productivity and reduce downtime and inefficient inventory. We incorporate your preferred colors, barcodes, and labels in our storage bins and totes. Contact us to learn more about our warehouse bins. Custom requests and dealer inquiries are welcome.
