A three point summary on how to get the most efficient and effective lighting in your warehouse.

Warehouses and their operations are a significant part of any organisation. Over the years warehouses have revolusionised. Some organisations operations include technologies for example bar-codes, automatic material placement and radio identification tagging (RFID) of containers. In order to run the operations department smoothly, it is important for quality lighting.

Along with the racking and storage equipment, the lighting must be thoroughly design and thought out. The lighting is a large expense in either a new warehouse fitout or if it is being redone. So, the correct planning will help to keep the spending to the budgets.

Follow our 3 point plan on deciding and designing the layout of lighting within your warehouse:

Working with an expert in the lighting industry, it will give you the resources to implement the most effective system for your operations. A few points to consider on determining the amount of lighting you will require within your warehouse include:

The distance of your racking or storage system from the roof. As the closer it is, the more lighting you will require.
The width of the aisles within the racking or storage system. By have lighting dedicated to each aisle, the wider the aisle the more lights you may require per aisle

The most cost effective light source is natural light. However making holes to the roof only exposes your products to the weather conditions and direct sunlight. In turn this could damage inventory and machinery. The recommendation is to install roof lights, even though the cost can be significant. Implementing roof lights and solar glazing will protect the inventory stored in the warehouse from direct sunlight.

Many warehouses are made up of inventory in various sizes and mostly store on a racking or storage system. It is important to keep in mind the layout of the warehouse. A few points to consider are:

the use of windows in conjuction with warehouse lighting
the lighting required based on the warehouse racking and storage design.

It is important to customise the warehouse lighting to suit your warehouse design and layout. As a result, it will ensure that you have all areas illuminated to their best. There are many options available for the lighting of a warehouse. It may seem to best to choose the most cost effective option. However it is important that the lighting installed is verified to meet the needs of the warehouse operations. Good lighting will play a significant role in the culture and as well as the safe keeping of employees working within the area.