Most warehouse owners assume the fix for a messy operation is simple. Hire more people, rent a bigger space, or buy fancier software. But according to our latest guest, that instinct is usually wrong, and it’s an expensive mistake to make.
In this episode of Secret Life of Inventory, we sat down with Adrian Betts, founder of Xpandur, a consulting firm that helps warehouses get more out of their operations without adding headcount, buying new equipment, or waiting on a system overhaul. Adrian has worked inside facilities ranging from 10,000 square feet all the way up to 2.8 million square feet for names like UPS, Walmart, and Amazon, and now brings those same lessons to businesses of every size.
Watch the full episode below, or read on for a quick recap of our conversation with Adrian.
Why “going slower” actually makes your warehouse faster
Adrian’s core philosophy might sound counterintuitive at first: you have to go slower to go faster. When teams skip the planning step and just start moving, they end up creating far more rework than they save in time. Adrian shares a real example of a team that skipped order validation to “save time.” This resulted in an entire trailer’s worth of misallocated product that had to be put back and resorted.
The warning signs of a process problem are usually hiding in plain sight, too. If your team constantly ends up with unexplained leftover stock or a package that “just stopped moving” somewhere in the workflow, that’s your cue to stop and investigate immediately, not after it happens a dozen more times.
The real difference between a people problem and a process problem
One of the most common traps Adrian sees? Companies treating a six-week employee like a seasoned veteran. Proper onboarding, he explains, can’t be rushed, even when the phones are ringing off the hook. Skimp on it now, and you’re not saving time; you’re just borrowing against the next 30 months of fixing preventable mistakes.
Slotting: the small layout decision with a big payoff
Before anyone touches software or square footage, Adrian says the real leverage is in slotting, or putting products where they make the most operational sense. Your fastest-moving items should live closest to your outbound doors, not tucked away in the corner. It’s the exact opposite of how a grocery store is designed, and once you understand why, it changes how you think about your entire floor plan.
What a 20-minute warehouse walkthrough can reveal
Adrian has a simple diagnostic he swears by: stand still on the floor and just watch. The packages, pallets, or people that stop moving are where your inefficiencies are hiding. He also points to smaller “blind spots,” like trash on the floor or a single pallet sitting slightly outside its designated square, as early indicators that standards are starting to slip across the entire operation.
Don’t let software pave over a broken process
Here’s a warning worth remembering before you sign any software contract. Digitizing a messy process just gives you a faster way to make the same mistakes. Adrian recommends businesses nail down simple, repeatable systems first, then look for software that offers real capacity management and automatic flags for aging inventory before it becomes a costly write-off.
Ranking the fix: people, space, or software?
When asked to rank people, space, and software in order of priority, Adrian doesn’t hesitate. People come first, every time. You can have the most powerful software in the world, but if your team doesn’t understand the process behind it, it won’t move the needle. Space comes next, since smart layout decisions can be made with or without technology. Software, in Adrian’s view, is the amplifier you bring in after the fundamentals are solid, not the fix for a fundamentally broken operation.
Ready to fine-tune your own warehouse?
From slotting strategy to seasonal staffing plans to the KPIs that actually matter (hint: it’s not just cost per carton), Adrian packs a ton of practical, real-world advice into this episode. Watch the full conversation with Adrian Betts for the complete breakdown. We talk about his approach to peak season scheduling, the metrics most warehouse managers overlook, and more.
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