Warehouse Management

 Meaning & Concept 

                       A warehouse can be defined functionally as a building in which to store bulk produce or goods (wares) for commercial purposes. The built form of warehouse structures throughout time depends on many contexts: materials, technologies sites and cultures. The needs for warehouses developed in societies in which trade reached a critical mass requiring storage at some points in the exchange process. A warehouse is a facility that, along with the storage racks, handling equipment and personal and management resources, allows us to control the differences between the incoming flow of goods (Received from the suppliers, production centers, etc.) and the outgoing flow of goods (Goods being sent to production, sale, etc.). Usually, these flows are not coordinated, and this is one of the reasons why it is important to have storage facilities. 

                       A warehouse is a building that stores products for stocking, packing, and shipping preparation. Warehouse are central locations that manage both inbound and outbound products. Maintaining a warehouse is crucial for any business that sells physical goods or receives products from a warehouse market place. As a business's sales grow, the need for physical space to maintain and package items grows too. Depending on a company's needs or preferences, multiple service providers may handle separate warehouse - related tasks. There are different types of warehouses for different businesses, but every warehouse provides secure storage for products. 

Types Of Warehouses 

                       Warehouse can be categorized on the basis of product of nature of business, movement of products, type of building, ownership of warehouse, storage of goods, etc. Some important type of warehouses are given below : - 

(1) Private Warehouse

                       The private warehouses are owned and operated by big manufacturers and merchants to fulfill their own storage needs. Big business firms that need large storage capacity on a regular basis and who can afford the money, construct and maintain their private warehouses. 

(2) Public Warehouses

                       A public warehouses is a specialized business establishment that provides storage facilities to the general public for a certain charge. It may be owned and operated by an individual or a cooperative society. It works under a license from the government in accordance with the prescribed rules and regulations. Public warehouses provide storage facilities to small manufacturers and traders at a low cost. These warehouses are well constructed and guarded round the clock to ensure safe custody of goods. Public warehouses are generally located near the junction of railways, highways, and waterways.   

(3) Bonded Warehouses

                       Bonded warehouses are licensed by the government to accept imported goods for storage until the payment of customs duty. These warehouses works under the control of customs authorities. The warehouse keeper is required to give an undertaking or "Bond" that it will not allow the goods to be removed without the consent of the customs authorities. The goods are held in bond and cannot be withdrawal without paying the customs duty. 

(4) Duty Paid Warehouses

                       If an importer faces any problem in the transportation of goods, after making payment of duty, then goods can be stores at a duty paid warehouse. All duty paid warehouses are public warehouses that are available to all importers. Duty paid warehouses help the importer as proper care of goods is taken processing of goods can be done like sorting, re-packing, etc. 

(5) Cold Storage Warehouses

                       Cold storage warehouses provide facilities for perishable commodities like fruits, flowers, vegetables, dairy products, etc. In cold storage warehouses, goods are stored and refrigerated at very low temperatures so as to preserve them and use them in the future. International trade has become possible due to these warehouses. 

(6) Government Warehouses

                       These ware houses are owned managed and controlled by central and state governments or public authorities. It is difficult for small farmers, businessmen, traders to own a warehouse, so these government assist them in storing their goods at a nominal charges. 

(7) Co - Operative Warehouses

                       These warehouses are owned, managed and controlled by co-operative societies. They mainly provide warehousing facilities at the most economical rates. These type of warehouses are very useful for farmers and traders and the general public. 

(8) Consolidated Warehouse

                       It is a type of warehouse that has a third party storage facility. Small shipments from different sellers who want to deliver at the same destination are loaded into one truck. These shipments may may go through a regional distribution before being delivered to the end users. Such type of warehouses are strategically to meet the demand. 

(9) Distribution Centers

                       This storage facility has a larger space and enables the fast movement of vast quantities of products for a short period. At the same time, on the other side, the conventional warehouse is a type that holds the products for a more extended period, like 1 or 2 months. These warehouses connect the dots in the warehouse distribution systems, where the goods are picked from the different sellers and distributed to their respective customers. To lower the delivery cost, such type of warehouses are located near the transportation centers. 

(10) Smart Warehouse

                       In this type of warehouse, the whole process from storage, fulfilment and management is automated. When we talk about automation, it includes the software that manages the task from packing to shipping. Big brands like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Firstcry, Alibaba use smart warehouses, that make order fulfilment less prone to error. When you opt for intelligent warehouses, there is no need to worry about management. 

Advantages Of Warehouses

(1) Extra Storage For More Goods

                       To meet the sudden more demand, warehousing plays a significant role. When we choose to warehouse for our products, the team always keeps extra storage to meet the sudden demand in case of a spike. With the warehouse facility, we can store more goods without the hassle. 

(2) Safety And Preservation

                       Manufacturers , importers, wholesalers, exporters, traders, stockiest use warehouses to store their goods before distribution and sale. Besides, serving the storage purposes, warehousing facilitates preservation facility against water, fire, theft and climatic changes. 

(3) Trouble Free Handling

                       Today warehouses are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns equipped with loading docks to load and unload trucks, from railways, seaports, or airports. They also have automatic forklifts and cranes for moving goods from one place to another within the warehouse area. 

(4) Ensuring Continuous Supply

                       Certain products like agricultural products are produced during a certain period of year but consumed or demanded throughout the year. Warehouse ensure adequate supply of such seasonal products throughout the year without any break. 

(5) Location Advantages For Goods Collection

                       Most of the warehouses are at a convenient place near railways, highways, seaports and airports that facilitates smooth movement of goods. Due to this the distribution cost is reduces. 

(6) Help To Continuous Production

                        As warehouse keep the stock of raw materials in large quantity, due to this the manufacturer can produce the the goods continuously without affecting the shortage of raw materials and also the manufacturer can keep the finished goods stock in bulk quantity. 

(7) Employment Generation

                       As warehouse are generally large plain building in industrial areas of cities. Warehouses are located near industrial areas. Hence large number of businessmen can store the goods in bulk quantity at a time. Further besides storage, warehouses perform several functions like procurement, sorting, dividing, marketing, preparing for shipmen, handling, inventory control, display, order processing, financing, transportation, grading and branding and so on resulting in employment generation in various sections and at various levels. 

(8) Financial Benefits

                         There are various ways in which warehousing can help to reduce costs. e.g. you may be able to borrow money against the security of your warehouse stock. At the same time, some warehouses will allow you to pay customs duty on goods proportionally, which helps keep costs under control. 

(9) Inventory Management

                           With the help of warehousing systems, we can easily count the inventory stock. And if we get the accurate data of inventory, then we produce limited quantity of product. And it is helpful to us for cost saving. Which means we can easily decide to procure the raw materials or not for producing further quantity of products. 

Conclusion

                              Warehouse is the plain building or premises, where the stored rack is kept in that manner, where the goods or products are kept or stored in a bulk quantity to attained the future demand. Warehouse is categorized as per the type of goods, movement of goods and ownership of warehouse. The main benefits of  warehouses are to control the flow of goods, control the inventory, supply of raw materials to the production department without disturbing the production chain. Through warehousing management, the employment is generating to transporter, packaging company, shipping company, security agencies, freight forwarding companies and manpower supplier agencies.