Our warehouse consultants have worked with warehouses in 39 different states (and one Canadian province!) last year. Through all of our interactions with warehouses helping them find solutions to challenges to make their operation more efficient, there is one thing we know that a lot of warehouses are overlooking: the importance of lighting. Good lighting can be a huge improvement to a warehouse in a lot of different ways. If your warehouse is struggling with one of these areas, it might be time to consider what a lighting change could do.
It improves employee morale.
Employees like to work in a nice environment. Part of what makes it so nice is the fact that it’s nicely lit and they can see into all those dark corners. It helps reduce eye strain, too, which could lead to headaches, shoulder pain, and neck aches. That means a well-lit warehouse could make your employees happier, help them work harder, and reduce the number of sick days they take.
It speeds up productivity.
When you can see what you are doing, you’ll be able to get it done a whole lot faster. Bright warehouses are a great way to make sure nothing is getting overlooked. Dim lighting can lead to mistakes, which slows down productivity and creates unhappy customers who are waiting on their corrected order. Bright lights allow your team to see what they are doing and get it done right.
It reduces loss and damage.
How much are you losing to the dark corners of your warehouse? When you flood them with light, you’ll wonder no more. Bright lighting helps your team ensure they aren’t overlooking items and marking them as lost. It can help reduce the amount of product that’s damaged in poor lighting, too, which means you’ll have fewer materials to damage out.
It makes your warehouse safer.
Your employees want to work in a safe environment, and good lighting is part of that. Dim lighting can lead to more accidents like a slip and falls. This can drive up your worker’s compensation claims and give your warehouse a bad reputation. Brighter lights mean better safety and fewer accident reports to fill out.
It can reduce your costs.
Taking care of all of the above things can help you reduce your operating costs, but good lighting itself can be cheaper to run. That’s because if you haven’t updated your lighting system recently, you could be using bulbs and fixtures that aren’t as energy efficient as what’s on the market today. Upgrading your lighting could actually lower your monthly energy costs, paying off the expense of the upgrade over time.
How to Get Better Lighting in Your Warehouse
Great lighting is definitely at the top of the list of recommendations that our warehouse consultants make to warehouses looking to improve their productivity and safety. If you want to learn more about what great lighting can do for your warehouse, you’ll want to speak to an industrial lighting expert. That can perform a cost-benefit analysis on new lighting in your warehouse and let you know what they can do for you and how much it’s going to cost.
Need other ideas about how to make your warehouse run smoother and work faster? Get in touch with us. Our warehouse consultants would love to speak with you about the challenges that you are facing and helping you find the warehouse equipment and other services that you need in order to overcome it. Give us a call or contact us through our website to get started. We can’t wait to start working with you to make your warehouse a better operation!