Many people fail to realize just how important organization really is. Having a well organized workspace can increase productivity and revenue. Believe it or not, having a well organized workspace can save a company hours and hours of labor and hundreds, and can prevent the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of inventory.
For example, if a company has a parts department or a company uses specific parts on an assembly line they can benefit greatly from a shelving / storage system using plastic bins and plastic totes. Items can be organized by size, type, color, weight, or any other specific category and then the bins can be labeled and organized on shelves. Instead of picking through shelves of loose parts, a person can look up a bin location, walk to where the bin is located, grab the part, and go back to business as usual.
Mechanics and service technicians can also benefit from storage systems using plastic bins. Especially if a mechanic works on multiple pieces of equipment or gets caught working on multiple issues on the same vehicle. Imagine if, instead of having a table littered with spare parts, a mechanic had a bin marked with a customer’s name and specific information about the parts in the bin. That mechanic could have a small set of shelves with bins with labels arranged by work order or customer name. These bins would help ensure that the mechanic would rarely, if ever, lose parts.
Since most shops operate on an ‘order-as-needed’ basis now, lost parts not only cost money but they cost time. A mechanic will typically order parts, which will then take a couple of days to a week to arrive. Once the parts arrive, he will fix the issue at hand. If there is no organization and something as simple as a specialized $1 washer gets lost somewhere along the way, then the mechanic could potentially be forced to pay for overnight shipping or to make the customer wait another few days for their repair. This is simply unacceptable.
Investing in organization may require a little up-front capital, but having a good system in place really does pay dividends in the long run. The bins and shelves will pay for themselves in terms of both time and money over the long haul. Having an organized work area also helps a company’s image. If a customer walks in and everything is cluttered, it can leave a bad impression. If, however, everything is nice and organized, the customer can be left with a very positive impression of the company.