10 Jun 2022

How to Calculate Warehouse Space Needed

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Warehouse Space

Warehouse management is one of the most important jobs in the supply chain. If you’re in charge of the warehouse link, you should already know that warehouse management is a game that’s played by the numbers. Almost nowhere is statistical analysis as important as in warehouse management. Calculating the amount of warehouse space that is going to be necessary for new orders is an important part of the job. How do you calculate the amount of warehouse space needed? The short answer lies in an old handyman adage: measure once and cut twice.

How to Calculate Warehouse Space Needed

Mistakes in the Warehouse

A mistake in the warehouse is a flaw in the supply chain. Warehouse mistakes can weaken the entire supply chain and can trigger problems further down the line. All of these problems could have been avoided with a few simple minutes of calculations.

Miscalculating the amount of warehouse space needed for an order can seem like no big deal. However, it can lead to pretty big mistakes! If you get it wrong, you will either order too much (or order too little).

If you screw up the amount of warehouse storage space needed for an order, there are going to be at least a few questions from upper management. What are you going to do with a larger order than you needed?

It costs the company more cash, and it can cost you the entire order (plus the time) when it gets sent back to its sender.

Measure Once

Let’s remember that any warehouse space calculation can be broken down into basic math equations. While it sounds hard at first, it’s actually just a more complicated version of a math equation that most people learned when they were kids.

Warehouse calculations are simply the calculation of area and volume. It’s about how much space you have, and how much space will be consumed by a new order.

If you can remember back to your younger school days, imagine the question about how much water can go into a water jug. In this case, the water jug is the warehouse (and the water is the order).

Basic Calculations

Calculating the area is pretty simple. First, you will have to calculate the area that one unit will take up.

Area = length x width x height

Next, you will have to know the area of your warehouse. Measure only the area where you intend to stack, and only up to the length, width, and height you will need for the order.

Remember that warehouses allow you to stack some of the order – but only up to a certain, regulated height. If you are a warehouse manager, you should remember to check the standards.

Where these two numbers meet, much like the question of the water jug and how much water it can take, you find the answer of how much space the order will take up.

Additional Reading: The Value of Warehouse Capacity

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