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Warehouse Diagnosis

Does your warehouse have these problems?

A practical reference for identifying the most common stock and storage issues — and understanding what causes them.

Problem Identification

The warning signs of a disorganized warehouse

These problems rarely appear in isolation. Most warehouses with one of these issues have several others operating beneath the surface.

Problem

Your team spends time searching for products

When staff regularly need to look for items that should be in a known location, it's a sign that either the location system doesn't exist or isn't being consistently maintained.

Problem

The system shows stock that isn't there

Inventory records that don't match physical reality — known as phantom stock — typically originate from inconsistent receiving practices, missing entries, or unrecorded losses.

Problem

You discover expired products during stocktakes

Finding expired products during a count means they were accessible but not prioritized for use. This is almost always a rotation problem, not a purchasing problem.

Problem

Nobody knows what arrived last week

If there's no consistent record of what was received, when, and in what quantity, your inventory data starts to drift from reality with every delivery.

Problem

New employees take weeks to learn the warehouse

If the only way to learn where things are is to be shown by someone who's been there a long time, the warehouse organization exists only in people's heads — not in the system.

Problem

You run out of items you thought you had

Unexpected stockouts on items that appeared in the system indicate either phantom stock or the absence of reorder point monitoring. Both are solvable with the right process.

Root Causes

Why these problems persist

Warehouse disorder rarely comes from carelessness. It comes from growth. A system that worked when you had 50 SKUs stops working at 500. A receiving process that depended on one reliable person stops working when that person leaves or you hire more staff.

The three most common root causes we find when we visit a warehouse are:

No documented location system — products go wherever there's space, not where they belong.
Inconsistent receiving practices — what happens when a delivery arrives depends on who's working that day.
No rotation discipline — older stock accumulates at the back while newer stock gets used first.
Consultant analyzing warehouse layout problems with clipboard and notes
What Good Looks Like

The characteristics of a well-organized warehouse

Every product has a designated location that is labeled and known to all staff.
New employees can locate any product within their first week using the documentation alone.
Receiving a delivery follows the same steps regardless of who is working.
Older stock is always accessible and used before newer stock in the same category.
When stock reaches a defined threshold, the reorder process starts automatically — not when someone notices it's running low.
Physical inventory counts confirm what the system shows, with minimal discrepancies.
The system doesn't depend on any single person's knowledge or memory to function.
Self-Assessment

Questions to ask about your own warehouse

These are the questions we ask during our initial visit. Consider them as a starting point for your own evaluation.

Location

If a new employee needed to find a specific product today, could they do it without asking anyone? Is every product's location written down somewhere accessible?

Reception

What happens when a delivery arrives on a day when your most experienced person isn't there? Is the process the same, or does it depend on improvisation?

Rotation

When you put new stock away, does it go behind the existing stock or in front of it? Is there a rule your team follows, or does it depend on whoever is doing it?

Accuracy

When you last did a physical count, how closely did it match your system records? If there were discrepancies, do you know where they came from?

Recognize some of these problems in your warehouse?

Contact us and describe your situation. We'll explain what we'd look at first and how we'd approach it.

Contact Us