Individual Project Warehouse Management

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Introduction A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns and villages. They usually have loading docks to load and unload goods from trucks. Sometimes warehouses are designed for the loading and unloading of goods directly from railways, airports, or seaports.

They often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks. Stored goods can include any raw materials, packing materials, spare parts, components, or finished goods associated with agriculture, manufacturing and production.2. Warehouse function3.1 Display of goods for sale These displayed goods for the home trade.

This would be finished goods- such as the latest cotton blouses or fashion items.3.2 Overseas warehouses These catered for the overseas trade. They became the meeting places for overseas wholesale buyers where printed and plain could be discussed and ordered.

3.3 Packing warehouses The main purpose of a packing warehouse was the picking, checking, labeling and packing of goods for export.3.4 Railway warehouses Warehouses were built close to the major stations in railway hubs.

3.5 Canal warehouses All these warehouse types can trace their origins back to the canal warehouses which were used for trans-shipment and storage.3. ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF WAREHOUSING Economic Benefits of Warehousing occur when overall logistics costs are reduced. For example, if adding a warehouse in a logistical system reduces overall transportation cost by an amount greater than required investment and operational cost, then total cost will be reduced.

When total cost reductions are achievable, the warehouse is economically justified. Four basic economic benefits are:4.6 Consolidation and break-bulk The economic benefits of consolidation and break-bulk are to reduce transportation cost by using warehouse capability to group shipments. Both consolidation and break-bulk arrangements use warehouse capacity to improve transportation efficiency. Many logistical arrangements involve both consolidation and break-bulk.4.

7 Sorting The basic benefit of sorting is to reconfigure freight as it flows from origin to destination. Three types of assortment—cross-docking, mixing, and assembly—are widely performed in logistical systems. The objective of cross-docking is to combine inventory from multiple origins into a pre-specified assortment for a specific customer.An end result similar to cross-docking is achieved in mixing.

However, mixing is usually performed at an intermediate location between shipment origin and destination. The objective of assembly is to support manufacturing operations.4.8 Seasonal storage The direct economic benefit of storage is to accommodate seasonal production or demand. For example, lawn furniture and toys are typically produced year-round but are sold only during a very short marketing period. In contrast, agricultural products are harvested at specific times, with subsequent consumption occurring throughout the year.

Both situations require inventory storage to support marketing efforts. Storage provides an inventory buffer, which allows production efficiencies within the constraints imposed by material sources and consumers.4.9 Reverse logistics A great deal of the physical work related to reverse logistics is performed at warehouses. Reverse logistics includes the activities to support:4.10.

1 Returns management Returns management is designed to facilitate the reverse flow of product that did not sell or to accommodate recalls.4.10.2 Remanufacturing and repair Remanufacturing and repair facilitates the reverse flow of product following its useful life. The product itself or components are then updated for sale at a discounted price.

Many computer and electronics manufacturers use remanufacturing to enhance their profits after initial leases are over.4.10.3 Remarketing Remarketers use coordination and reverse flow to position and resell product when the original user no longer needs it.4.10.

4 Recycling Recycling returns product following its useful life with the objective of decomposing it to its component materials so that they can be effectively reused. Metals, plastics, and precious commodities are often the focus of recycling activities.4.10.

5 Disposal When material cannot be effectively reused, it still may require reverse logistics to dispose of it in the appropriate landfill.4. WAREHOUSING STORAGE A typical warehouse is engaged in a combination of active and extended product storage alternatives. Warehouses that directly serve customers typically focus on active short- term storage. In contrast, other warehouses may use extended storage for speculative, seasonal, or obsolete inventory.

In controlling and measuring warehouse operations, it is important to differentiate the relative requirements and performance capabilities of active and extended storage.5.10 Active Storage The active storage concept includes flow-through or cross-dock distribution, which uses warehouses for consolidation and assortment while maintaining minimal or no inventory in storage.5.11 Extended Storage When inventory is held for periods in excess of that required for normal replenishment of customer stocks, it is referred to as extended storage. In some special situations, storage may be required for several months prior to customer shipment.

5. Types of Warehouses The warehouse is the most common type of storage though other forms do exist (e.g., storage tanks, computer server farms). Some warehouses are massive structures that simultaneously support the unloading of numerous in-bound trucks and railroad cars containing suppliers’ products while at the same time loading multiple trucks for shipment to customers.

Below we discuss five types of warehouses:6.12 Private Warehouse This type of warehouse is owned and operated by channel suppliers and resellers and used in their own distribution activity. For instance, a major retail chain may have several regional warehouses supplying their stores or a wholesaler will operate a warehouse at which it receives and distributes products.6.13 Public Warehouse The public warehouse is essentially space that can be leased to solve short-term distribution needs.

Retailers that operate their own private warehouses may occasionally seek additional storage space if their facilities have reached capacity or if they are making a special, large purchase of products. For example, retailers may order extra merchandise to prepare for in-store sales or order a large volume of a product that is offered at a low promotional price by a supplier.6.14 Automated Warehouse With advances in computer and robotics technology many warehouses now have automated capabilities. The level of automation ranges from a small conveyor belt transporting products in a small area all the way up to a fully automated facility where only a few people are needed to handle storage activity for thousands of pounds/kilograms of product. In fact, many warehouses use machines to handle nearly all physical distribution activities such as moving product-filled pallets (i.

e., platforms that hold large amounts of product) around buildings that may be several stories tall and the length of two or more football fields.6.15 Climate-Controlled Warehouse Warehouses handle storage of many types of products including those that need special handling conditions such as freezers for storing frozen products, humidity-controlled environments for delicate products, such as produce or flowers, and dirt-free facilities for handling highly sensitive computer products.6.16 Distribution Center There are some warehouses where product storage is considered a very temporary activity.

These warehouses serve as points in the distribution system at which products are received from many suppliers and quickly shipped out to many customers. In some cases, such as with distribution centers handling perishable food (e.g., produce), most of the product enters in the early morning and is distributed by the end of the day.6.

Conclusion Warehouses can be used to create product assortments for customer shipment. Warehousing is to maximize flexibility; information technology facilitates flexibility by allowing warehouse operators to quickly react to changing customer requirements. Benefits realized from strategic warehousing are classified as economic and service .No warehousing should be included in a logistical system unless it is fully justified on some combination of cost and service. The best economic benefits of consolidation and break-bulk are to reduce transportation, realization of the lowest possible freight rate, timely and controlled delivery.

The basic benefit of assortment is to reconfigure freight as it flows from origin to destination. Three types of assortments-cross-docking, mixing, and assembly-are widely used in logistical systems, and seasonal storage is to accommodate either seasonal production or demand. Reverse logistics processing is performed at warehouse includes activities support. Remarketers use coordination and reverse flow to position and resell product when the original user no longer need it.