Warehouse Management
Warehouse management and distribution logistics involve the physical warehouse where products are stored, as well as the receipt and movement of goods takes place. Warehouse management aims to control the storage and movement of products and materials within a warehouse. These operations include the receipting of inwards goods, tracking, stacking and stock movement through the warehouse.
Warehouse management and distribution logistics involve the physical warehouse where products are stored, as well as the receipt and movement of goods takes place. Warehouse management aims to control the storage and movement of products and materials within a warehouse. These operations include the receipting of inwards goods, tracking, stacking and stock movement through the warehouse. Warehouse management is also responsible for ensuring shelving or pallet racking is in place to secure the stock, maintaining the quality of goods while in storage and until they are shipped out of the warehouse. The warehouse is the core of inventory management where all goods are received, sent to stores or shipped out and delivered to customers. Warehouse management isn’t so much about space as it is how to effectively use that space.
Warehouse Management Costs
All companies with warehouses incur cost that would depend on various components like order volume, storage time and fulfillment type. However, it’s good to know what are common warehousing costs so that you know how to budget for warehouse services. Generally warehouses expenses include costs incurred on handling and moving product in or out of the warehouse, costs associated with the equipment used to handle product, cost of fuel or electricity to power the equipment, rent and storage expenses, costs on operations administration and administrative expenses.
Given below is a snapshot of various cost components that you will often see in warehousing operations:
- Employment (wages, benefits, compensation, training etc.)
- Storage (rent, depreciation, interest, local taxes etc.)
- Material handling (fork lift trucks, pallets, packaging etc.)
- Utilities (electricity, heat etc.)
- Communication (Internet, telephone systems etc.)
- Administration (management, insurance, security etc.)
Warehouse Management Systems
Knowing how much inventory you need is important, but equally important is knowing where that inventory is. The system or software application that manages these operations is known as a warehouse management system (WMS). WMS programs allow for centralized management of warehouse management processes, such as inventory tracking and stock locations. A warehouse execution system (WES) coordinates all of the processes that take place inside a warehouse or distribution center, including material handling equipment, devices, inventory management, and employees. A warehouse management system (WMS) controls, manages, and regulates the movement of goods within a warehouse or distribution center. Typical features of a WMS include inventory management, picking and putaway, order visibility, and fulfillment.
Current warehouse operations can be so complex in a multi-divisional organization operating through multiple channels, that they require a dedicated team to run them. All warehousing aspects must be streamlined to ensure that customers get their orders on time. The key to successfully managing multiple warehouses is to get a good understanding of the warehousing concepts and modern best practices. This will help you to identify challenges in warehousing operations for your business and develop strategies to overcome them.
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Before shipping, businesses need to make sure that the items will arrive in good condition. Packaging is a form of protection against environmental threats that the product will face from the time it leaves warehouse facility until the time it reached the customer. The packaging is intended to provide protection for the item as it is being handled in the warehouse or when the item is being shipped.
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The Outbound process starts with routing the shipments. The Outbound execution process starts from the point when pick tasks are completed for an outbound shipment and ends at the point where the outbound packages are loaded into trailers. The Warehouse Outbound process includes managing and controlling outgoing materials starting from the download of orders through to the shipping of products from the warehouse.
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Transport operations are often divided into full load and part load and due to economies of scale, the unit costs are higher for part loads. Our customer needs several part loads delivering, so it can reduce costs by consolidating these into full loads. Then it gets all the part loads delivered to a warehouse near the suppliers, consolidates them into full loads, and pays the lower costs of full-load transport to its operations.
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Types of Order Picking Methods in the Warehouse
There are many different types of picking in a warehouse and each one works as a customized solution for each business. Depending on the size of your warehouse and inventory, the manpower you have on hand, and the number of customer orders made each day, there may be certain methods that are more efficient for you than others.
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One of the warehousing best practices that retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Target have adopted is known as cross-docking. During this process the inbound products are unloaded at a distribution center and then sorted by destination, and eventually reloaded onto outbound trucks. In real parlance, the goods are not at all warehoused but just moved across the dock (hence the name).
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Warehouses may seem like a simple, straightforward concept, but they actually include a variety of different types of warehouses that all have their own niche. The type of warehousing that’s right for you depends on your specific industry, location, and needs. From private warehousing, distribution centers, and climate-controlled warehouses, there’s an option to suit every business.
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After products have been received and passed a quality inspection, they need to be stored so that you can find them when you need them. This process is called putaway. The spot where you store a particular product is called a location. One section of a warehouse might have small locations for light items; another area may have large locations on the floor for heavy items.
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Overview of Warehouse Processes
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
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When a customer wants a product that has been stored in the warehouse, the same need to be picked off the shelf (or off the floor) and get it ready for shipping. Depending on how big is the warehouse, picking can take a while. (Many distribution centers cover more than 1 million square feet.). Hence, warehouse order picking methods are an important aspect within any warehouse.
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Miscellaneous Warehouse Processes
At the end of each inventory control, the Contractor provides the Ordering Person with an inventory report which contains a list of all stock adjustments. The Ordering Person uses the report to create, by use of his/her own means, necessary value and accounting adjustments related to the stock. Let us look at some to the mislaneous warehouse processes not covered earlier.
