Question

What activities constitute managing a warehouse?

1. Generate a list of all relevant activities, concepts, and/or steps for managing a warehouse.
2. Determine the form of the map that you see as the most appropriate representation, as spider, hierarchical, flowchart, or system (see the first reading on concept maps). Justify your choice.
3. Construct your concept map using the software of choice.
4. Give examples as you construct your map.

Answer 1

WAREHOUSE :

A warehouse is a building for storing goods.Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, towns, or villages.

They usually have loading docks to load and unload goods from trucks. Sometimes warehouses are designed for the loading and unloading of goods directly from railways, airports, or seaports. They often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks. Stored goods can include any raw materials, packing materials, spare parts, components, or finished goods associated with agriculture, manufacturing, and production. In India and Hong Kong, a warehouse may be referred to as a "godown".There are also godowns in the Shanghai Bund.

ACTIVITIES THAT CONSTITUTE MANAGING A WAREHOUSE:

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a software application specializing in supporting the day to day operations within a warehouse.

The system involves a number of processes that are important when shipping, receiving, or even putting away materials and integrates with other systems in the supply chain to ensure data transparency throughout your enterprise.

Receiving goods

The WMS provides a simple process that is to be followed when handling a shipment that has arrived at the warehouse. The process can be customized to suit different users’ requirements but its core function is to ensure that all shipments are handled properly to minimize losses and also save on time.

Tracking inventory

A WMS enables warehouse owners to keep a tab of all the stock in the warehouse. This is important because it ensures that the warehouse management team is able to know when there is enough stock in the warehouse and know when to order for more stock to prevent shortages. This saves on space as overstocking is prevented and also ensures that resources are well distributed to ensure smooth warehouse management.

Slotting for Efficiency

A WMS enables users to model an efficient way of storing different products in a warehouse depending on different factors like demand and weight. This ensures that the warehouse is arranged in such a way that products that move faster or are heavier are stored close to the door for faster processing of orders, and products that are used together are stored in close proximity. This makes running the warehouse easy and efficient.

Labor visibility

The WMS system eliminates the need to get more labor to undertake some of the functions that are managed at a central point in WMS. Probably the biggest labor savings is eliminating full inventory counts which can often happen monthly or even weekly. A WMS can allow you to do periodic cycle counts without interfering with day to day operations. Reducing labor can obviously greatly cut back on expenditure simply because the system is not labor-intensive.

Document preparation

A WMS automates most of the different processes, eliminating the need for paper documents that are bulky, and eat up quite a huge chunk of money when it comes to purchasing them and storing them appropriately. By giving visibility to the system to everyone simultaneously, everyone has the data needed to do their job at their fingertips.

Picking and Shipping

A proper WMS ensures that the right product is picked based on your business rules (LIFO or FIFO). A good WMS will make sure that the right orders are shipped to the right people at the right time. With this accuracy, the mistakes that can arise when transporting goods are avoided and ends up as a more efficient and less costly transport system.

Customer service

A WMS improves the overall customer service by ensuring that orders are received and processed on time, and the right products are delivered to all customers when and where they need them. The quality of products is maintained enabling users to retain their customers and attract new ones.

Tracking and Visibility

For industries that require advanced tracking capabilities, a WMS will allow you to track lot information, expiry dates, UPC, and serial numbers. Each data point adds to the cost to maintain but often comes with great returns when advanced visibility is required. Recalls and warranty issues are quickly resolved by solving the root problem through traceback instead of just a payout to the customer.

Reporting

The best Warehouse Management Systems will be in an easy to use database, like Microsoft SQL and include many reports out of the box. One hidden advantage to having systems is the ability to look at data in new and exciting ways. What percentage of your warehouse is utilized? Should you expand, or find a smaller space? How many transactions are each employee doing per hour? Can you reduce headcount? Can you negotiate better rates with your parcel service based on your cube and weight throughput? Is your pick path setup to be as efficient as possible for your pickers?

STEPS FOR MANAGING A WAREHOUSE:

There are some basic Warehouse Management Processes that are normally followed as per below.

1. Step 1 – Receiving. ...
2. Step 2 – Putaway. ...
3. Step 3 -Storage. ...
4. Step 4 – Picking. ...
5. Step 5 – Shipping.

FLOWCHART REPRESENTING THE MANAGEMENT OF WAREHOUSE: