How to Choose a Safe and Secure Warehouse for Your Goods?

Whether you have long-term or short-term storage requirements, you need to ensure the safety and proper protection of your inventories. Here comes the role of a safe, robust, and secure warehouse to prevent theft and store your inventories. Remember that the storage process in a warehouse involves the proper organization, physical preservation, and tracking of diverse goods/materials. Adequate storage is crucial to avoid damage and ensure the products remain ready to use. Otherwise, your business may have the following negative consequences of inadequate storage-

• Inadequate security measures in any warehouse may allow malicious individuals and thieves to enter the facility.
• Natural disasters, like earthquakes and floods with fire incidents in storage facilities, are additional risk factors leading to severe damage to warehouses and stored goods.   

Indeed, business owners must act smartly and choose a warehouse that adopts updated security measures and strategies to achieve risk management.

Overall, the key here is to dedicate your time and conduct thorough research on potential warehouse facilities before your final decision. If you have any queries or need help finding a secure warehouse facility that meets your specific needs, contact our Divine Trans team today. We can offer a free consultation and guide you through the process of choosing the right warehouse for your business.

Learn more about our warehousing solutions at https://www.divinetrans.com/page/facility

Considerations for Warehouse Security

Warehouse security for any business includes diverse aspects and things depending on your office setup, location, and nature of your business. However, here we have classified the warehouse security considerations based on its physical security and mandatory security protocols as follows-

Physical Security

Under the physical security of a warehouse, our selection criteria will be based on the following parameters-

Facility Construction

Whether you want to use a warehouse for storing raw materials, semi-finished goods, or finished products, always focus on its facility’s construction. These include a well-structured warehouse building consisting of sturdy materials.

Moreover, the warehouse must have a proper fence to prevent the entry of antisocial elements and thefts. Besides proper fencing, a warehouse must have enough lighting. The illuminated warehouse area allows the installed cameras and office staff to observe whatever takes place within the building.

Access Control

Restricting and monitoring access is essential to any warehouse security measure. For this, warehouse owners must mandate workers to enter the warehouse facilities or distribution centers with their ID cards or keycard systems.

In other words, warehouses and storage facilities must use keycard systems with biometric data, security gates, and related controlled access points for the entry of their workers. Accordingly, warehouse owners may monitor their employees’ activities and restrict access to sensitive/dangerous areas.

Surveillance Systems

Your prospective warehouse for business operations must possess the following surveillance systems-

Camera System

Warehouses must have high-definition security cameras or CCTV cameras equipped with robust Wi-Fi facilities in their entry, exit, and other key areas. These cameras must stay connected to external servers to let owners monitor the entire warehouse facility remotely.

Remember that the camera system works for both internal and external surveillance i.e. to identify intruders and monitor any suspicious behavior of employees. Hence, both external and internal cameras must be durable, and tamperproof.  

Alarm System

Alarm systems are also crucial tools to deter theft attempts and reduce criminal activities. These devices summon police or security officers timely to prevent the escape of thieves or catch them red-handed.

Patrol Systems

Reputed and robust warehouse facilities must have a few manual security patrols along with advanced security systems. The patrols will police the entire premise to serve as a deterrent to antisocial elements and trespassers to reduce large-scale risks of theft.

Security Protocols

Good warehouse facilities must possess the following necessary security protocols-

Inventory Management/Tracking Solutions

Inventory tracking or management solutions identify any inventory shrinkage spontaneously and ensure accuracy in your inventory availability reports. For this, warehouses use barcode technology and RFID tags to achieve inventory traceability and accuracy. As smart warehouse trends, they enable real-time inventory movement tracking to allow efficient stock management, prevent loss/theft, and reduce errors.

Employee Training on Various Security Measures

Employees of any good warehouse must receive regular and proper training and awareness of the best warehousing practices. When the staff receives proper education to identify security threats, operate security systems, and respond to emergencies, they create a vigilance and accountability culture. Such culture will further strengthen the overall security of a warehouse.

Plans/Preparations for Emergencies

Every warehouse must prepare a few comprehensive plans related to emergency response for diverse scenarios. These include natural disasters, fires, and security breaches. Evacuation routes, clearly defined procedures, and designated roles empower employees to handle emergencies, reduce risks, and ensure safety.

Additional Factors to Consider:

Other than security protocols and physical security, focus on a few additional factors while choosing a warehouse-

Location

Make sure to check the location of a prospective warehouse facility for your business. Here, you must look for a secure neighborhood. Also, the location must possess easy access to transportation and have proximity to your business venture.

Insurance

Even though employee training and emergency preparedness are in the security protocol of a warehouse, accidents followed by damages to goods may occur at any time. Luckily, if your chosen warehouse has the right insurance coverage, you may recover the loss that may occur from the damage to your stored goods.

Additional Security

Many warehouses today offer armed security or 24/7 security service to their facilities. If possible, select the one that offers round-the-clock security to your stored goods.

References and Reputation

Always check the reputation of a warehouse facility and collect references from other businesses or companies before finalizing your deal.

Compliance Needs

Depending on the finished goods you need to store in a warehouse facility, you must go through the mandatory compliance requirements and industrial regulations. Accordingly, you should select a specific warehouse facility.

Conclusion

Business owners always need to safeguard their inventories every time. Hence, one should select a warehouse facility with the highest possible security standards and innovative theft prevention systems.

These include 24/7 alarm systems, coordinated security patrols, and real-time video monitoring. Simultaneously, your selected warehouse facility must evaluate the mandatory security measures regularly based on a comprehensive assessment of protocols, procedures, and technologies to identify the areas that need improvement.