Importance of Warehouse in Logistic? also include funcations

• Raw material and component warehouses hold raw materials at or near the point of induction into a manufacturing or assembly process.

• Work-in-process warehouses hold partially completed assemblies and products at various points along an assembly or production line.

• Finished goods warehouses hold inventory used to balance and buffer the variation between production schedules and demand.  For this purpose, the warehouse is usually located near the point of manufacture and is often characterized by the flow of full pallets in and full pallets out assuming that product size and volume warrant pallet-sized loads.  A warehouse serving only this function may have demands ranging from monthly to quarterly replenishment of stock to the next level of distribution. 

• Distribution warehouses, distribution centers accumulate and consolidate products from various points of manufacture within a single firm, or from several firms, for combined shipment to common customers.  Such a warehouse may be located central to either the production locations or the customer base.  Product movement may be typified by full pallets or cases in and full cases or broken case quantities out.  The facility is typically responding to regular weekly or monthly orders.

• Fulfillment warehouses, fulfillment centers receive, pick, and ship small orders for individual consumers.

• Local warehouses are distributed in the field in order to shorten transportation distances to permit rapid response to customer demand.  Frequently, single items are picked, and the same item may be shipped to the customer every day.

• Value added service warehouses serve as the facility where key product customization activities are executed including packaging, labeling, marking, pricing, and returns processing.

A store is primarily intended to assist in the production of goods or services and no industrial unit of any significant size can be efficiently manage without it.

Objective: The basic objective is to provide a service to the operating functions and this aspect of service must be fully appreciated. All the other activities, although they have their own importance, are subordinate to this main responsibility of service.

The service rendered by a store can be categorized into four broad divisions:

1) To make available a balanced flow of raw materials, components, tools, equipment and any other materials necessary to meet operational requirements.

2) To provide maintenance materials, spare parts and general stores as required.

3) To receive and dispatch finished products.

4) To accept and store crap and other discarded material as they arise and also arrange for their disposal.

Even where the requirements of materials can be predicted accurately in advance, it is seldom possible to adjust the rate of receipt from outside suppliers to correspond exactly with day to day needs. Because of this, storage facilities are essential to maintain a balance between supply and demand.

Similarly, in a manufacturing unit, it is not always practicable to arrange production schedule in such a way that the distribution of all finished goods or components is exactly matched. Buffer stocks have to be held to meet fluctuating markets needs.

Service being the most important objective of a store; it is obviously desirable to provide that service in the most economical manner. The most important consideration here is to maintain the value of materials in stock (The total inventory value) at the lowest practicable level at all times, in order to economize in the use of working capital and to minimize the cost of storage. It is obvious, however, that there is some tension generated in the need to give good service. The more stock held, the easier it is to have items readily available on demand, but this implies that a greater cost will be incurred. Thus it is necessary to establish a satisfactory compromise and to ensure that the store itself is economically managed, especially by close coordination with other functions in securing savings wherever practicable.

Responsibilities:The major responsibilities of a store are listed below:

1) Identification of all materials stored.

2) Receipt of incoming materials.

3) Inspection of all receipts from vendors and sub contractors

4) Storage and preservation

5) Materials handling

6) Packing

7) Issue of materials to users within the organization

8) Processing of customer orders

9) Dispatch of finished goods

10) Maintenance of the stock records

11) Store accounting

12) Inventory control

13) Stock taking

14) Submission of management information reports.