Introduction Logistics has been defined as that type of business planning that focuses its operations in material management, flow of information and capital and efficient service delivery in an organization. Some of the important components involved in the process of logistics include complex information, control systems, and effective communication channels that will make the whole process simple and efficient. A warehouse is also an important part of the logistics system as it plays several roles that are important to both the traders and the target market. Thus, this paper will define a warehouse, its roles in the logistics system, the different types of warehouses and why businesses may prefer one warehouse to the other. Finally, the
Warehouses also offer storage facilities and at the same time avail different products in a central location. Through these, economic benefits are realized by way of consolidation as well as ensuring accumulation operations for the manufacturers.
Service benefits The other roles of warehouses is that of serving as parts of contingency plans whose main purpose is to make sure that outbound orders are wholly filled with this being done on time. Through stocking, businesses are allowed to keep predetermined quantities of item inventories in the warehouses.
Types of warehouses There are different types of warehouse namely, distribution, consolidated, long-term, dockyard, and cold warehouses. The characteristics as well as the roles of each warehouse based on their aspects are explained in the following section.
Distribution warehouse Distribution warehouses are specifically meant for product distribution purposes. These warehouses are majorly used to receive, store, and transfer high volumes of products. These warehouses house products from either a single or multiple manufacturers and they are in most cases stored temporarily.
The software is meant to support the day-to-day operations of warehouses by ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.
The benefits of WMS Some of the benefits of the warehouse management system include that of faster inventory returns, efficient uses of warehouse space, significant reduction of paperwork, and improved cycle counting. Other benefits include improved customer care services, reduced dependency on warehouse personnel, and improved labor productivity.
Conclusion
Warehouses are an important part in the logistic system and their roles cannot be overlooked. It is on these basis that this paper has looked at some of the important roles that warehouses play in the whole system of logistics as well as explaining the different types of warehouses used by different people. The application of warehouse management system and the benefits associated with the system have also been discussed in the paper as a way of showing how important it is adopt the
Distribution CenterDistribution Center Director:. The Director, of the Distribution Center is responsible for the management of an automated and paced distribution center. The chief responsibilities of the person applying for this position are as follows. They are responsible for developing and skillfully managing the annual budget of the distribution center Maintaining and supporting the Distribution Center Key Performance Indicators Maintains the entire Distribution Center Equipment efficiently and manages the facilities maintenance programs Manage the available resources effectively Responsible for the management of the performance development procedure Warehouse Manager::. A person who has expertise in managing and training people at work to achieve daily production targets and quality can easily fit into this job.
The warehouse operations manager opening is one of the vital Market Basket distribution center jobs available. After all, this individual is in charge of managing employees and improving warehouse operations.
The inventory issue also ties in with transportation problems where accurate lead and delivery times are non-existent. The inventory turnover is not at its full potential because if the DC has merchandise yet the stores are stocked out, the inventory is frozen and will become obsolete.
Usually, businesses tend to keep inventory levels high so as to effectively meet uncertain and quick changing demands of its customers. However, keeping high inventory always proves costly for them. Thus to reduce warehousing or storage costs, these companies hold limited stocks of products just enough to meet fluctuating consumer
Zanjirani F., Rezapour, S. & Kardar, L. (2011) Logistics operations and management concepts and models, 1st ed. London ; Elsevier.
All choices made by Seven-Eleven are structured to lower its transportation and receiving costs. For example, its area-dominance strategy of opening at least 50 to 60 stores in an area helps with marketing but also lowers the cost of replenishment. All manufacturing facilities are centralized to get the maximum benefit of capacity aggregation and also lower the inbound transportation cost from the manufacturer to the distribution center (DC). Seven-Eleven also requires all suppliers to deliver to the DC where products are sorted by temperature. This reduces the outbound transportation cost because of aggregation of deliveries across multiple suppliers. It also lowers the receiving cost. The information infrastructure is set up to allow store managers to place orders based on analysis of consumption data. The information infrastructure also facilitates the sorting of an order at the DC and receiving of the order at the store. The key point to emphasize here is that most decisions by Seven-Eleven are structured to aggregate transportation and receiving to make both cheaper.
In the competitive environment, it is necessary for moving products involves reception of products at an intermediate location, store, repackage, clear customs and transport to final destination. The other factor in the supply chain logistics is speed given information flows fast in the internet era. The customer expects everything quick accustomed to the instant status access to the information. With the real time inventory, customer expects the location of the product, it is next scheduled movement and the final delivery schedule.
Inventory management is a method through which a business handles tangible resources and materials to ensure availability of resources for use. It is a collection of interdisciplinary processes including a full circle of the demand forecasting, supply chain management, inventory control and reverse logistics. Inventory management is the optimization of inventories of manufactured goods, work in progress, and raw materials. According to Doucette (2001) inventory management can be challenging at times; however, the need for effective inventory management is largely seen more as a necessity than a mere trend when customer satisfaction and service have become a prime reason for a business to stand apart from its competition. For example, Wal-Mart’s inventory management is one of the biggest contributors to the success of the company; effective and efficient inventory management is of critical importance.
Storage and transportation of stock are important activities that connect all three parts of the supply chain. To work on the logistics aspects of business, LeanFoods employs specialist transportation and storage companies. TDG is one such partner of LeanFoods, for storing and transportation of pallets of LeanFoods cereals. This enables LeanFoods to concentrate on its specialist area of manufacturing cereals and other food products. To reduce the distribution costs and keep the products competitive, LeanFoods shares transportation with another manufacturer, Kimberley Clark. Sharing of transportation helps in reducing the number of part-full or empty vehicles on the road. This system not only saves time and road miles but also provides additional benefits of reducing CO2 emissions.
At a physical level, data warehouses tend to be heavily indexed and partitioned to put the most used data on faster storage. There are other options available as well. Data warehouses are typically designed with specific questions in mind, but as data grows, the warehouse gains value because there are new questions that can be asked if only the organization is perceptive enough to see them. Those questions and their answers can lead to new opportunities for designing a competitive advantage.
The distribution channels enhance marketing of goods through reduction in the number of transactions that is required for the availability of the goods to the final customers. Two major ways are involved in this case, the breaking bulk and the creation assortments (Katsikeas, 2014). In breaking bulk, the retailers and the wholesalers buy large sum of goods from the companies and sell them bit by bit to the various customers in different places. Other values associated with distribution are negotiations, promotion of goods and matching of the offers to meet every need of the
Wholesalers acts as a lesion between manufacturers of commodities and other industries that are interesting in selling the same products. Along this distribution chain wholesalers usually purchase goods in large quantities and in turn sells them to retailers who ultimately supplies goods and services to consumers. Due to the available space at wholesale locations they are able to store products for distribution to retailers which reduces retailers storage costs. Wholesalers are able to store goods in large quantities which allow retailers to purchase in small quantities. Due to this option retailers are able to only purchase what is needed at that given point (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Additionally, because wholesalers are able to purchase goods
Based on my research, one of the challenges faced by logistic company is capacity forecast. Capacity forecast is a general’s capacity theory that we should know it about warehousing. Warehousing it is very important in this industry where they play an important role to store the goods before its loading and unloading once it arrive at the destination point. The requirement for this phase is its transportation. As an example, the used of mode, carrier and protection class. Furthermore, capacity forecast has its own benefits in logistic. Which is, this solution ensure the logistic, manufacturing and supply chain to work together to the same plan (Byrne, 2011). The logistic industry had faced is, widespread their promotion and to work efficiently on land.
Inventory management can enhance the efficiency in operation of the supermarket. Supermarket must ensure that the correct levels of inventory are being maintained throughout the store, and that merchandise is purchased at the best price point as possible. Holding too much inventory on hand generate costs like carrying costs. Whereas having too little inventory on hand makes customers dissatisfied and it leads to declining
“Effective procurement affects inventory control by obtaining the right items in the correct quantity for the best value” ("Inventory Management and Tracking Reference Guide," 2012, p. 28). It is important for foodservice industry to have proper equipment and suppliers, to support the receiving protocols, enable efficient transportation and store the diverse food items safely and conveniently (Doty, 2004). Stores management and procedure operations are important aspect of procurement cycle which will help the business to run smoothly, more efficient and effective. This paper will look at what is good storage procedure and it’s objectives. Furthermore, explaining the procurement cycle and its interactions with stores and storage department.