How Inefficient Warehouse Operations Waste Energy and Money Every Day

Wasted energy in a warehouse typically goes unnoticed, usually because of small operational inefficiencies that add up over time. While many facilities focus on managing utility costs, lighting retrofits, HVAC upgrades, and renewable energy, the largest source of energy consumption is found in daily workflows. This might include extra forklift trips, poorly planned pick routes, idle equipment, and rework from errors that consume extra electricity and fuel throughout the day. 

These inefficiencies increase operating and labor costs, and that makes energy waste an operational issue rather than a facilities problem.

Inefficient material handling drains energy

Energy waste in a warehouse involves more than just leaving lights on or running equipment for too long. Material handling inefficiencies like extra passes, unnecessary idling, and poorly planned picking paths all contribute to excess energy usage. Forklifts, pallet jacks, and other handling equipment already consume significant electricity, propane or fuel. That usage adds up through inefficiencies across multiple shifts and operators.

Some warehouses address this by reinforcing best practices through online forklift certification that teaches operators how to move product more efficiently. For example, order picker forklift certification teaches operators skills and safety requirements directly related to their position as an order picker, including how to operate different types of equipment. Here’s why training is essential:

·       Extra forklift trips increase energy usage. A single trip might seem insignificant but when repeated, the wasted energy compounds fast. Making three trips instead of one due to poor load planning means energy usage triples. Multiply that across an entire team and multiple shifts and that’s a lot of wasted energy.

·       Unnecessary idling time burns power or fuel. Forklifts left running between tasks keep using energy without productivity. This is common during shift changes and paperwork delays. Over time, this can account for a huge portion of total energy use.

·       Poor load consolidation increases travel time. Moving partial loads rather than consolidating pallets requires more trips across the warehouse, which increases energy consumption and wear.

·       Inefficient dock-to-storage paths increase wasted energy. Poor layout planning can cause forklifts to travel further between docks and storage locations. Longer routes use more energy for every trip.

·       Bad habits increase energy usage. When operators haven’t been trained properly, they develop wasteful habits like excessive reversing or unnecessary repositioning.

As more material handling inefficiencies pile up, energy waste becomes a daily thing rather than an occasional issue. Even when you trade diesel and LPG forklifts for electric – which are 50% cheaper to run – excessive and unnecessary usage will drain the battery capacity. Addressing these habits at the root is the only way to prevent major energy waste throughout a facility.

Poor layouts create excess energy consumption

Warehouse layouts directly impact how much energy is needed to move goods from receiving to storage and then to shipping. Inefficient layouts force operators to travel further than necessary but are often overlooked as a normal part of operations.

When a layout hasn’t been optimized for that particular warehouse’s needs, traffic can get congested and force equipment to be stopped and restarted repeatedly. This increases fuel consumption and reduces battery efficiency.

Poor slotting decisions in particular are a major contributor to wasted energy during order fulfilment. For example, frequently picked items should be kept close to shipping areas. Then there’s the issue of poorly separated workflows that can cause traffic jams and interference, requiring even more travel time that consumes energy.

Unoptimized picking paths waste energy all day long

Order picking is a process that uses the most fuel and energy in a warehouse because of the constant movement. Poorly designed pick paths increase travel distance and extend equipment runtime. But this type of inefficiency is usually invisible because it only occurs incrementally throughout the day.

It’s best to use software to create optimal picking paths because manual mapping won’t account for every variable. Efficient picking is the fastest way to reduce one of the most common sources of wasted energy.

Errors and rework waste significant energy

Every picking and shipping error or damaged pallet requires extra handling, transportation, and processing, which uses more electricity and fuel. Correcting picking errors takes extra trips and burns more fuel. Returns have to be processed. Damaged goods need to be replaced and thrown out. And all of these issues require forklifts and conveyors to operate for longer periods of time, increasing energy usage.

Small daily inefficiencies become major energy loss

What may seem like a few extra minutes of idling or a few extra trips down an aisle become major sources of energy waste when repeated thousands of times. Inefficient material handling, poor layouts, and unoptimized picking paths all contribute to excessive energy usage that could be avoided with a little extra planning.