Fundamental Activities Of Warehouses - STORE !

Manufactured goods are required to be kept for some time before they are delivered to consumers. A number of manufacturers, wholesalers, exporters and importers need to store the finished goods and materials, and to ensure regular circulation of vehicles, occupants and machinery that are associated with the handling of these goods and materials. Warehouse owners give manufacturing space for lease to these manufacturers and ensure safety and security before the final delivery.

Warehouse Space for Lease

The built of warehouses vary according to the geographical conditions and the type of manufacturer that uses it. For example, freezer are required for storing frozen products and humidity controlled environment is required for delicate products. Similarly, a warehouse space in Chennai handling perishable goods, shipped quickly would be different from a Warehouse in Delhi handling machinery. Although different roles are performed by different warehouses, their fundamental activities are common. These activities are general and also form a flow line of the entire procedure.

• Receipt: This includes orderly receiving all the materials after assuring that the quality and quantity of the product is in sync with what had been ordered. These materials are further disbursed to the storage systems for safeguarding them. Some of these materials are subjected to other organizational activities that are required, before pushing them to storage.

• Prepackaging: This activity is performed when the products are received in bulk from a single supplier. Prepackaging is also done if the materials are received in merchandisable quantities. This helps in cost cutting of the overall storage where individual packaging requires more tools and manpower. Prepackaging serves the purpose of safe keeping the goods which further can be packaged according to the delivery pattern.

• Put away: This activity deals in properly allocating goods to different storage systems. Some of the main features of this activity are handling of materials, placement of products and verification of location.

• Storage: Storage is the actual hold of products while they are awaiting the demand. The size and quantity of the products are constantly verified to avoid any mistakes. Storage also involves protecting the products from wear and tear.

• Order picking: It is a process of removing products from storage to meet a specific demand. It is the basic service of a warehouse.

• Pricing: This is an optional step after picking process. Because of the duration for which the goods are kept, price list might show some change. They may remain unchanged as well. In such situations, re-pricing is not done.

• Shipping: This is the final step of warehousing where orders are checked for completeness, shipping charges are decided, orders are accumulated by outbound carriers and trucks are loaded for delivery.