Warehouse Management - General

Warehouse Management

Is it only a storage facility?
 A warehouse is typically viewed as a place to

store inventory.
 However, in many logistical system designs,

the role of the warehouse is more properly viewed as a switching facility as contrasted to a storage facility.

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A Sample Warehouse

Video

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Benefits of Warehousing
Consolidation  Shipment consolidation is an economic benefit of warehousing.  With this arrangement, the consolidating warehouse receives and consolidates materials from a number of manufacturing plants destined to a specific customer on a single transportation shipment.  The benefits are the realization of the lowest possible transportation rate and reduced congestion at a customer's receiving dock.

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Consolidation Warehouses

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Consolidation Warehouses…
 The primary benefit of consolidation is that it

combines the logistical flow of several small shipments to a specific market area.

 Consolidation warehousing may be used by a single

firm, or a number of firms may join together and use a for-hire consolidation service.

 Through the use of such a program, each individua1

manufacturer or shipper can enjoy lower total distribution cost than could be realized on a direct shipment basis individually.

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Break bulk warehouses
 Break bulk warehouse operations are similar to

consolidation except that no storage is performed.  A break bulk operation receives combined customer orders from manufacturers and ships them to individual customers.  The break bulk warehouse sorts or splits individual orders and arranges for local delivery.  Because the long-distance transportation movement is a large shipment, transport costs are lower and there is less difficulty in tracking.

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Break bulk warehouses…

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Processing/Postponement
 Warehouses can also be used to postpone, or delay,

production by performing processing and light manufacturing activities.

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