Lean Material Handling Training - How to Create a Lean Warehouse

Transform how you approach warehouse and distribution center operations with this complete training bundle designed for sales professionals, supervisors, engineers, and lean consultants.

How Do I Create a Lean Warehouse?

The Lean Material Handling Training series includes 30 expertly crafted courses that teach you how to observe, measure, and optimize warehouse processes with a lean mindset. From site surveys to layout design, racking, labeling, picking systems, energy strategy, and sales consulting, this series equips you with the knowledge to identify inefficiencies and design practical solutions.

This Lean Material Handling Training is ideal for:

• MHE and racking sales professionals who want to add value through consultative discovery

• New warehouse supervisors and operations managers looking to improve flow, space, and safety

• Engineers and lean consultants seeking proven strategies to reduce waste and support continuous improvement

• Dealer sales teams who want to sell smarter with better site insight, calculators, and ROI tools

Each course blends real-world examples, cost-justified recommendations, and step-by-step walkthroughs that help you apply lean principles to your customer’s warehouse—or your own.

What You’ll Learn Across the Course Bundle:

• How to conduct purposeful site walks and operational discovery

• How to redesign warehouse layouts for flow, safety, and SKU density

• How to frame customer problems and lead consultative sales discussions

• How to calculate TCO, ROI, and motive power savings

• How to sell or implement lean warehouse solutions based on facts—not assumptions

Whether you’re in sales, operations, or engineering, this training series helps you turn every observation into a meaningful improvement plan.

1. Warehouse Operations What to Measure, Observe, and Ask

This course provides a structured framework for conducting effective warehouse site surveys. By the end, participants will know what to look for, what to ask, and what to measure in order to uncover inefficiencies and align recommendations with actual operational needs.

What You See = What You Can Solve

Every visual clue you spot is a potential quote, proposal, or solution:

• Idle equipment? → Right-size the fleet
• Congested aisles? → Reconfigure layout or introduce reach trucks
• Manual handling? → Recommend ergonomic tools or automation
• Damaged racking? → Offer safety audits and protection hardware
• Dock bottlenecks? → Propose better staging or seasonal rentals
• Battery swaps? → Introduce lithium motive power or fast-charging options

Lean Material Handling Training Course – What to Measure, Observe, and Ask - Overview

Lesson 1: Why Site Surveys Matter
Why observation reveals what reports don’t—and how it translates to solutions.

Lesson 2: Visual Thinking
How to “read” warehouse layout, flow, congestion, and space usage.

Lesson 3: Operational Data to Collect
Measurements and metrics that inform decisions—aisle widths, runtime, throughput, etc.

Lesson 4: Interviewing Warehouse Staff
How to ask better questions without disrupting work or sounding like an auditor.

Lesson 5: Site Survey Example – Walkthrough
A real (anonymized) warehouse case with observations, questions, data, and outcomes.

Mastering Warehouse Management: Essential Site Survey Techniques 🏭 - Watch Video

Included is a

25-page course companion guide 

PDF site survey form