STUDENTS' CORNER - 77

Now, after manufacturing inventory, we have to look into warehousing as logistics component.

A warehouse is obviously a commercial building and therefore it is used by those connected with business and trade such as manufacturers, exporters, importers, stockists, and wholesalers, so on.

 A warehouse is usually a very large building; it has to be since it has keep umpteen kinds of goods for future use by so many businessmen. And it is generally situated in industrial areas so that their use can be effective.

Since goods have to be lifted high to be placed in some high docks, loading docks, it will be equipped with cranes and forklifts.  Movements of goods will not be possible without these forklifts and cranes.

In India, a warehouse is also called godown.

While some small spare room may be sufficient for some small business, large business necessarily needs bigger spaces to store its products; the business man then rents a space for his purpose.

It must be clear that a warehouse is not a distribution center.  A warehouse simply just stores goods and nothing more; but, a distribution center not only stores but also deals with orders and fulfills them.

There are two kinds of warehouses:  Centralized and Decentralized warehouses and we will know about them later and now let us consider some fundamental facts about a warehouse.

No warehouse worth the name can exist without shelving and rack systems which are effective in providing maximum storage capacity and easy work flow.  Access to the goods when needed in time and maximum utilization of space for storage with proper equipments are essential for managing warehouses.  Shelving and rack systems do require careful planning lest the workflow gets affected impacting productivity. It is suggested that some specialist in shelving may be consulted to avoid wastage of space, time and money.

There must be a climate control system without which frozen products cannot be stored to profit. Refrigeration is integral to a warehouse for enhancing its competency. There are products which degrade if exposed to too much heat and for such products, refrigeration is inevitable; even for some pharmaceutical products, refrigeration cannot be dispensed with.

With unforeseen heights of technological development, it is not at all difficult to get inventory control software that helps both the product owner and the owner of the warehouse---product owner need not necessarily be the owner of the warehouse—to find with no loss of time where his products, even individual units are placed and to know the number of product owners using the ware house, respectively.