Warehouse Management Processes
The main warehouse processes often comprise of receiving, putaway, storage (warehousing), picking and packaging, and the final stage of shipping. Optimization of these processes allows an individual to streamline the warehouse operations such as to reduce costs and achieve a higher rate of perfection.
Receiving
Receiving begins with the announcement of the arrival of goods which enables the warehouse to make preparations to schedule the receipt and acceptance in order to coordinate with other activities in the warehouse (Vassiliadis, Quix, Vassiliou, & Jarke, 2001). Upon arrival, goods are often scanned and prepared for putaway, a process that involves scanning of the product to register the arrival of the products for the customers. This process also involves inspection of the products to ascertain their quality and quantity.
Putaway
Upon arrival, the products should be assigned particular locations in the warehouse that requires the assistance of a warehouse location inventory that provides information on the available location, their size, and the amount of weight they can bear. When putting away the product, it is necessary to scan the storage location in order to record the location where the product has been placed and ensure the inclusion of such information in the picking lists.
Storage
Storage is often considered the warehouse main activity. The main decisions that often facilitate storage activities include the amount of inventory that should be shored for every stock keeping unit (SKU) and the replenishment period of each SKU. One should also understand where the SKU should be stored in the storeroom or warehouse. These are important concerns to consider in that a warehouse that is well-slotted tends to outperform those with limited effort placed on this process.
Picking
Upon receipt of a customer order, the checking process should be undertaken in order to verify the availability of particular products for customers. The pickers work with the assistance of a picking list to improve efficiency (Atieh et al., 2016). All the activities undertaken in the warehouse are often accomplished through the assistance of a warehouse management system (WMS) that helps to improve pick rates and efficiency of all the orders that have been fulfilled.
Packaging
This process often consolidates various items that have been picked in the sales order to prepare them for shipment to the consumers. During this process, the people involved often work hard to minimize the chances of damages from the moment the products leave the warehouse to when they reach the consumer.
Shipping
This process is often considered labor intensive in that every article should be handled separately by ascertaining the completion of all customer orders. This activity often involves high distances of travel in that the packing should be undertaken close to the shipping docks. In order to increase efficiency, each trailer should be scanned in order to register its departure.
References
Atieh, A. M., Kaylani, H., Al-abdallat, Y., Qaderi, A., Ghoul, L., Jaradat, L., & Hdairis, I. (2016). Performance improvement of inventory management system processes by an automated warehouse management system. Procedia Cirp, 41, 568-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2015.12.122
Vassiliadis, P., Quix, C., Vassiliou, Y., & Jarke, M. (2001). Data warehouse process management. Information Systems, 26(3), 205-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-4379(01)00018-7