"Nothing else fits." That is the phrase that triggers the search for a bigger warehouse, and it almost always arrives before anyone has measured how much space is actually available. Relocating an operation is expensive, slow and risky, so it is worth spending two weeks understanding the problem before spending the budget solving it. This guide is the step before: what to look at first, in what order to try what costs no equipment, and how to tell that the problem is now volume rather than disorder.
Before deciding: apparent occupancy is not real occupancy
A warehouse can look full while using a fraction of its capacity. Apparent occupancy is what you see walking through it: loaded racking, occupied aisles, goods on the floor. Real occupancy is how many of the existing positions are actually taken, and how much of the building’s volume is in use.
The two rarely match, and the gap explains why many relocations are decided with the warehouse at half capacity. Before quoting anything, it is worth having three figures: how many positions you have, how many are occupied, and the building’s real clear height, measured to the lowest point of the roof structure.
First: remove what should not be taking up space
A good share of the missing space is taken up by goods that no longer move. Obsolete items, overstock, unprocessed returns and discontinued references occupy positions that are later paid for as if the warehouse were too small.
They are identified with movement data, not by walking the floor: what came in, what went out and what has not been touched in recent months. It is the fastest step and the only one that costs neither equipment nor construction. It is worth exhausting before anything else, because it also changes the starting point of any later project: sizing a system on an inflated inventory means sizing it wrong.
Then: sort out where each item goes and standardise the container
With the inventory cleaned up, the second step is location assignment. If fast-moving goods sit far from the dispatch area and slow movers occupy the most accessible positions, the warehouse travels more and stores less. Reassigning by turnover costs no equipment.
The third step is the load unit. If every supplier delivers in a different container, the warehouse loses positions adapting to each format. Standardising the pallet or container tidies up the operation on its own, and is also a precondition for any later automation: an automated system handles a standard unit, and if there is none, there is nothing to handle.
How to tell the problem is now volume
The three steps above have a ceiling. When the inventory is clean, locations are assigned by turnover and the load unit is standardised, and the goods still do not fit, the problem has stopped being disorder and has become volume.
The clearest signal is height: if the building has clear height above the top racking level, there is available volume the current operation cannot reach. At that point the conversation shifts from layout to equipment, and it is worth having it with measured figures.
What densifying means, how much is gained depending on clear height, what each alternative costs and what physical conditions the building has to meet are covered in the guide on how to gain warehouse space, which is the next step after this page.
Measure first, decide afterwards
Lack of space is almost never solved by the first decision taken, because that decision is usually taken without measuring. Cleaning up the inventory, reassigning locations by turnover and standardising the load unit cost no equipment and change the diagnosis. If the problem persists after that, it is volume, and then densifying is worth assessing. At STOKA we run that measurement free of charge, and if the problem can be solved by rearranging, we say so.
Frequently asked questions
Cleaning up the inventory with turnover data: obsolete items, overstock and non-moving references. It is the only step that costs neither equipment nor construction, and it also corrects the starting point of any later project. Sizing a system on an inflated inventory means sizing it wrong.
By comparing apparent occupancy with real occupancy. If positions remain free, or if the building has height above the top racking level, the problem is not yet volume. When the inventory is clean, locations are assigned by turnover and goods still do not fit, then it is volume.
It depends on the operation, which is why it is measured before deciding. What is structural: renting and building buy new square metres at a cost that never ends, while densifying gives back metres already being paid for. The figure for your case comes from the survey.