Overview of Warehouse Processes
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
Given below are the list of activities that are generally included in today's ‘warehousing’
- Receiving goods from suppliers.
- Identifying the goods, matching them to orders and finding their intended use.
- Unloading materials from delivery vehicles.
- Doing checks on quantity and quality.
- Sorting goods as needed.
- Labelling the goods.
- Moving goods to storage area.
- Holding them in stock.
- Moving materials within warehouse.
- Picking materials for orders.
- Packing and packaging.
- Loading delivery vehicles.
- Dispatching the order.
- Inventory control and finance.
This is a generic layman view of the warehouse process. Now we will look at the same process from warehouse management perspective and do a deep dive into all of the warehouse activities understanding their drivers and industry wide used execution model.
Warehouse Management Work Processes
Warehouse management is one facet of supply chain management. The Warehouse management includes a wide range of sub-processes and activities to support the warehouse facility operating at an optimal level, at any time. Warehouse processes need to be integrated with other business processes such as transportation, manufacturing, quality control, purchase, transfer, sales, and returns. Any store, factory, or distribution center employs eight high-level processes for physical inventory:
- Inbound Receiving Process
- Inbound Put-away
- Warehouse Picking Process
- Warehouse Packing Process
- Outbound Shipping Process
- Warehouse Counts Process
- Warehouse Returns Process
- Warehouse Labelling Process
- Warehouse Staffing and Roles
- Miscellaneous Warehouse Processes
- Warehouse Reporting
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Inbound Receiving Process |
When products arrive at a facility, there need to be a defined process to let them in. The process for accepting inventory when it arrives is called "Receiving". |
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Inbound Put-away |
After products have been received and passed a quality inspection, they need to be stored so that you can find them when you need them. This process is called put-away. |
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Warehouse Picking Process |
Order picking is the process of selecting items from a warehouse , to fulfill customer orders. |
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Warehouse Packing Process |
The packing process allows you to validate and pack products into containers. The packaging is intended to provide protection for the item as it is being handled in the warehouse or when the item is being shipped. |
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Outbound Shipping Process |
The final step is to send ship loads out of the warehouse once all the work that is associated with those loads has been completed. |
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Warehouse Counts Process |
Counts are typically done to eliminate mismatches between the system and the actual inventory. |
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Warehouse Returns Process |
A return is the process of handling the return of products from a customer to the distribution center. |
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Warehouse Labelling Process |
Labelling is done to streamline warehouse organization and make sure workers can easily identify every section, rack, and carton. |
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Warehouse Staffing and Roles |
Staffing is concerned with the planning for expected workload and determine the number of resources required to complete each activity. |
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Miscellaneous Warehouse Processes |
Miscellaneous processes to manage the warehouse operations. |
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Warehouse Reporting |
Preparation and availability of right kind of operational and inventory reports across the warehouse for effective control of warehouse operations. |
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Types of Inventory Count Processes
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What is a Warehouse & why companies need them?
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Miscellaneous Warehouse Processes
At the end of each inventory control, the Contractor provides the Ordering Person with an inventory report which contains a list of all stock adjustments. The Ordering Person uses the report to create, by use of his/her own means, necessary value and accounting adjustments related to the stock. Let us look at some to the mislaneous warehouse processes not covered earlier.
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When products arrive at a facility, there need to be a defined process to let them in. The process for accepting inventory when it arrives is called "Receiving". Any warehousing operation must be able to receive inventory or freight from trucks at loading docks and then stow them away in a storage location. Receiving often involves scheduling appointments for deliveries to occur, along with unloading the goods and performing a quality inspection.
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Overview of Warehouse Processes
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
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In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
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Resource Planning is the process of planning for expected workload and determining the number of resources required to complete each activity in the warehouse. There are many types of warehouse positions, and they also vary by the employer, the scale of operations and location. Discussed here are generic positions applicable to warehouse management processes.
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Inventory is money, and hence businesses need to perform physical inventory counts periodically to make sure that their inventory records are accurate. The traditional approach to conducting inventory counts is to shut down a facility during a slow time of year to count everything, one item at a time. This process is slow, expensive, and (unfortunately) not very accurate.
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Business Case of Multiple Warehouses
Adding extra warehouses to business provides many benefits such as reducing shipping costs, increasing storage capacity, and having warehouses for specific purposes to simplify overall warehouse management. Multiple warehouses allow you to organize your inventory in a way that helps your business be more effective.
