Question

explain inventory and warehouse management processes and outline key business processes

Answer 1

The terms "inventory management" and "warehouse management" are sometimes used interchangeably because they both deal with operations and products.Both involve tracking parts and products with bar codes, cycle counting, picking, packing, and shipping items, and receiving orders into existing inventory, says Unleashed. But the two, although similar in some ways, are distinctly different.

Warehouse Management:Warehouse management, as its name implies, involves the "various processes related to maintaining and controlling a business’s warehouse," which also produces business software, including warehouse-management software.

Warehouse management involves every step of the process, from beginning to end, and is usually overseen by warehouse managers. Starting from incoming freight and moving on to asset tracking and logistics, warehouse management encompasses everything that happens in a warehouse.

Warehouse management involves six specific processes:

• Inbound processing: where items are checked and logged as they are received and put away in the correct bins, or packed for dispatch without further storage.
• Warehouse layout and slotting: where fast-moving items are placed near the front, items that are often bought together are located close to each other, and items that are easily mistaken for each other are separated.
• Picking: where items are placed so that pickers (workers who grab items and make them ready or pack them for shipment can easily find them, and their journey time between items and between orders is minimized.
• Packing: where orders are packed in the right packaging, complete with an accurate contents slip and added to a delivery manifest for dispatch.
• Shipping: where the correct orders are placed on the right vehicle at the right time, with the right delivery manifest.
• Managing returns: where returned goods are unloaded quickly before the vehicle is available for loading again. These goods then need to be checked off against the original order and the information logged against the customer’s account.

Inventory Management:Inventory management is the management of inventory and stock. As an element of supply chain management, inventory management includes aspects such as controlling and overseeing ordering inventory, storage of inventory, and controlling the amount of product for sale.

Put another way  "inventory management is all about having the right inventory at the right quantity, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost." It can involve several strategies:

Just in time: In this method, inventory is scheduled to arrive just in time, or just when it is needed.

ABC analysis: With this inventory management strategy, a business divides inventory into three categories, based on consumption. Items of high value account for 70 percent, items of moderate value account for 20 percent, and items of small value account for 10 percent.

Drop shipping: This method eliminates the need to hold inventory. With drop shipping, a company can directly transfer orders and shipment details to a manufacturer, which then ships the goods directly to customers. Drop shipping is also an excellent example that shows the difference between warehouse and inventory management. With drop shipping, a company does not maintain, or even have, a warehouse at all!

Cross-docking: Similar to drop shipping, cross-docking is "a practice where incoming semitrailer trucks or railroad cars unload materials directly onto outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars with little or no storage in between,," says Trade Gecko. As with drop shipping, a company that practices cross-docking as an inventory management strategy, may not need to have a warehouse. In other words, the firm manages inventory without a warehouse, and of course, does not need to practice warehouse management. This can be a big money saver for companies.