Constructing a building requires various subsets of materials needed to be on-site so your workers can build, design, and style a structure. These supplies contribute to the structure’s strength, longevity, and durability. Aside from that, they also provide appearance-related elements, which help in increasing the value of the building.
Organizing construction materials is crucial in keeping your site clean and free from dangerous debris. Consequently, when you can adequately store these supplies, your employees can find them quickly.
Instead of wasting their time looking for misplaced items, they can finish their tasks effectively, which speeds up your project. In turn, you’ll reach the demands of your clients and sustain a positive brand image.
This article provides three best practices for organizing and storing construction materials.
- Designate A Storage Space
When looking for a place to store construction materials, it’s best to minimize inventory shrinkage and maximize efficiencies like space and usability. To do so, you must assess weather conditions, especially if your area is prone to flooding or extreme temperatures.
Failure to comply might cause material breakage due to moisture, forcing you to re-order another batch of supplies. To properly store your construction materials, you may consider these three ways:
- Internal Warehouse
This option is more convenient because you can easily monitor the materials when your workers use them. Unfortunately, this alternative requires a broader floor area because underutilized supplies take up much space. Thus, you must allocate more budget to expanding your floor plan, or you can adopt vertical shelving.
Aside from that, improving the circulation within your warehouse to keep materials dry and avoid moisture is necessary. Also, you have to invest in surveillance systems and train your security personnel to keep your construction materials safe.
After that, you have to customize item labels with the help of storage solutions like Stack-it NZ or similar products. Doing so will help your staff to relocate them whenever they transport the supplies.
- Vehicles
If you don’t have enough room to store everything in one place, consider using vehicles as temporary storage units. This option can benefit startup construction companies, so you can still enable your workers to grab and use tools without too much trouble.
However, remember not to overload vehicles with too many large items because doing so can affect vehicle safety and performance.
- Rental Storage Facility
This alternative is one of the best options for storing your construction materials because you won’t have to worry about securing their safety. The company will take care of all the necessary maintenance. Hence, you won’t have to spend money expanding your warehouse and hiring more personnel.
When signing a contract with a rental storage facility, it would help to assess the distance of their location and possible travel costs. Doing so will help determine if renting a storage space will be a cost-effective solution for your construction company.
In addition, you should also figure out if they prioritize security to assure yourself that no intruders can enter their facility and steal your belongings.
- Efficient Inventory System
It’s best to monitor your construction materials in multiple locations to ensure they’re always available. Doing so allows your workers to grab the needed materials quickly, avoiding downtime and boosting productivity.
If you don’t have a proper inventory system, it might be hard for your team to know where to find the supplies they need. As a result, you could lose time, money, and productivity because you can’t finish the job on time.
Having an efficient materials inventory system will help your construction company track the materials that arrive and leave your premises. In turn, you’ll always know where everything is and never run out of stock when it matters most.
- Organized Storage
Storing similar items together will help you organize your construction materials so your staff can find the necessary tools. Furthermore, this strategy can prevent some materials and highly-flammable chemicals from mixing. This safety measure is vital for lumber and tile, which can spontaneously combust if they come in contact with certain liquids like paint or cement.
In addition, you can make it easier for your team if you use labelling technology like barcodes and quick response (QR) codes, which they can scan through mobile devices. Rather than browsing through several containers, they’ll improve their productivity by accessing the necessary materials quickly.
Besides that, this strategy prevents you from having to re-purchase the same materials you already have. Instead of frequently declaring lost items, your staff can monitor the number of supplies available and put them back in the right places.
Key Takeaway
It’s best to prioritize proper inventory management to facilitate the durability of structures and on-time project completion. Therefore, it would help to follow these practices in organizing and storing construction materials. Once you do so, you can avoid losing supplies, save costs, and boost worker productivity.