What is a warehouse?

[ecis2016.org] Warehouse is a storage space for goods used by manufacturers, wholesalers and other stakeholders such as transport companies, import and export companies and customs

With e-commerce in India gaining market share, there is one specific type of real estate asset that has seen the highest growth in the past few years – warehousing.

You are reading: What is a warehouse?

A warehouse is a storage space for goods used by manufacturers, wholesalers and other stakeholders such as transport companies, import and export companies and customs. These warehouses are usually constructed as large plain buildings, in special economic or industrial zones, located on the outskirts of major cities, towns or villages.

What is warehousing?

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The act of storing goods, which can be used later for selling or distributing, is called warehousing. A small business can warehouse their goods in a basement, garage or spare room, while a big business can rent or own a space that can be used specifically for such storage.

Why are warehouses important?

Warehousing is important for mainly three reasons:

1. It enables one to store, ship and distribute goods from a single location, which makes it easier to track and manage the inventory efficiently. A warehouse at an upfront location also reduces the transportation costs.
2. Warehousing allows the product owner to deliver and distribute their products in a timely manner. It also helps to reduce errors during the order fulfillment process.
3. The entire process is insured which means, if the products get damaged or stolen, the product owner gets compensation. Also, storing goods in a temperature-controlled warehouse prevents unwanted changes in colour or texture of the goods.

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Different elements of warehousing

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There are a number of elements in a warehouse, which helps manufacturers and distributors to judge if a specific building can fulfil their purpose of warehousing. This includes ease of monitoring inventory, safety of the stored goods and space management. Here are few other basic elements of warehouses:

1. Shelving and rack systems: For maximum storage capacity and easy product access.
2. Climate control system: If the product is temperature-sensitive, the warehouse should be capable of storing such items. This may include frozen products or those requiring refrigeration, certain laboratory or pharmaceutical products and products that may degrade if exposed to too much heat.
3. Inventory control software: A number of warehouse units have this software, which informs the product owner about the location of specific units in the system, at all times.
4. Equipment that can move products from one point to another: Many warehouse providers also provide internal transfer equipment such as forklifts, pallet jacks, bins that hold products for orders and conveyor belts.
5. Easy access to cost-effective transportation: This is to bring in or move the good out as orders are fulfilled, which requires easy access to interstates, rail lines or airports.

Process of warehousing

The exact warehousing process will depend on the size of the operation, the type of warehouse and storage and the volume of goods moving through the facility. Nevertheless, the following are some key processes, which are common in all kinds of operations:

1. Receiving: Products received are checked with the supplier’s packing document. Also, the goods are inspected for physical damage.
2. Put-away: This is the process of moving the goods from the receiving area to the place where they will be stored. It also includes calculating the total space requirement for each item received.
3. Picking: This is the process of collecting articles before shipping them and it involves the utilisation of significant resources. It is one of the process that can greatly influence the supply chain’s productivity.
4. Packing: This involves combining all the items in a sales order together and preparing it for shipment.
5. Shipping: This is the process of dispatching the orders. The shipped goods are packed, to avoid cluttering in the staging as it could lead to late deliveries.

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