WAREHOSUSING FOR DUMMIES
1.1 Preview/warm up
Warehousing is an integral part of Logistics so as to increase responsiveness to customers in the marketplace for business organizations. The subject is gaining importance as multinationals like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Metro etc shall be allowed mutibranding retailing in a big way. In fact cabinet of Government of India has already cleared 49 per cent of FDI( foreign direct investment) for foreign multinationals in area of multibranding Retailing. Such multinationals shall open cold chain and state of art warehouses for perishable goods and shall require huge skilled manpower in areas of Warehousing . Warehousing not only reduces transportation costs but also are used to avoid stock-outs in the retail stores and are vital in manufacturing industry to keep assembly line of production up and running. This chapter introduces you to exciting world of warehousing which in future shall help to improve logistics infrastructure in the country. Read this chapter carefully which talks about purpose and activities involved in warehousing, benefits of warehousing, warehouse organization structure and gives as insight into warehousing day to day operations.
1.2 Learning objectives
· To understand the basic functioning of warehousing to support manufacturing and retail sector
· To understand what are the various activities which are involved in small and large warehouses
· To understand the various economic and service benefits of Warehousing
· To understand the organization chart of a warehouse with functions and duties of all the important staff
1.3 Warehousing Introduction
Purpose of warehousing is to store material safely and in order. You would have noticed how in kitchen, housewives need some storage space for cooking material like flour (Atta) ,Daal, vegetables , Ghee , spices etc. etc. Some Space is also needed to store utensils, cooking gas cylinder and so on. For perishable items like vegetables, meat, milk etc they require refrigerator to keep them cold so that such eatables could be used for longer time. As per the usage and requirement, housewives have their own methods to access them and to keep them in order. They keep most accessible items at arms length and items which are not often used like only during festivals are kept in shelves which are are at a larger distance and require more time to access.
Industries also require likewise space to store various material involving chemicals, raw material, stationery , electrical items, tools and tackles, lubricants and oils etc etc. In fact variety of items vary depending on type of industry and kinds of items which warehouses have to store are very large and as such require a careful planning so as to keep them safely and in order. Industrial items
Let us see now how a warehouse looks like . This is given below in figure 1
Figure 1
You would see in the picture above that materials in packed form are kept in shelves and enough space has been provided for easy movements for persons who have to pick the material from the shelves either manually or moving fork-lifts. A careful layout of warehouse is planned so that stored items are identified and issued with minimum efforts and minimum time. The items stored are known as ‘Inventory’. Note down this word carefully as this shall be used often in further teaching topics like inventory control.
A warehouse is as such a commercial building storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, wholesalers, exporters and importers and transporters. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. Sometimes warehouses are designed for the loading and unloading of goods directly from airports, seaports and Railways. They often have cranes, forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on pallets loaded into pallet racks. Let us see now how cranes, forklifts and pallets look like as these are new terminologies which you must know as student of warehousing.
Fork Lift and the Driver Pallet
Crane
Check your progress Exercise A
1. What is the purpose of a warehouse?
2. Tick, who are the users of a warehouse?
a) Manufacturers b) Importers and exporters c) Transporters d) Wholesalers
3. What is the purpose of a forklift
4. What is inventory in a Warehouse?
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5. What are the varieties of material which are stored in a warehouse
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1.4 Activities in a warehouse/store
Let us see first see how a warehouse layout looks like to understand the activities in a warehouse which happen day in day out.
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The above is a layout of a warehouse used in manufacturing industry. In a manufacturing industry, you require raw materials which are ordered and procured and stored in the warehouse. They are issued once again to the shop floor for manufacturing on the assembly line where finally finished good after quality checks etc are packed and the shipped to wholesalers, dealers etc based on the orders received from them.
In the above layout, observe the arrows carefully and you shall find out that there is an in-coming section of the warehousing where the material is received. Subsequently material is sorted and either stored or sent to manufacturing unit used as work in progress section.. There is an outgoing section where the packed material is shipped on the truck based on the orders received from the wholesalers and dealer’s .There is business office section which keeps all the records of material incoming, outgoing and material stored in addition to housekeeping functions to control manpower requiring attendance records etc. additionally. Warehousing is a manpower intensive area and lot of manpower is required involving order pickers, staff for store management, material management, finance management, IT management etc.
Warehouse in action
In the above picture what you see is that order pickers after lifting the material from the shelves are moving within the warehouse with the material on their forklift. This is a day in day out job in warehouses to keep dispatching the packed material after sorting them from the shelves built in the storage area.
Now based on the above inputs given to you, we can now summarize the activities in a warehouse in following category heads.
1. Requisitioning of materials.
2. Material inspection
3. Warehousing operations.
1.4.1 Requisitioning of materials
We shall now describe each of these activities in detail. You will appreciate now that in warehousing materials are continuously picked by order pickers but the items picked must be replaced otherwise a ‘stock out ‘situation shall arise. ‘Stock out’ basically means that material to be fetched is not available on the shelves which is considered a bad situation in the warehouse. As such it is vital that activity of replacement of material picked from the shelves must happen regularly. This requires requisitioning of the material. In domestic house also housewife keeps regularly procuring the raw material like Atta, Daal and vegetables otherwise the family members will starve because of lack of cooked food. Because if housewife does not requisition these items, her cooking activity in the kitchen shall come to a standstill.. One can say that cooking activity is similar to manufacturing activity in the industry. Only thing is her customers are her family members who order and consume her cooked food.
So now we can elaborate this activity of requisitioning of materials into following further activities.
· Replenishment ( replacement of material in the shelves after order picker has picked the material from there) of stock items
· Requisitioning of new/out of stock items.
· Processing and approval of purchase requisition( purchase requisition is a form which is filled by the user as a request to procure and purchase the material)
· Amendment/cancellation of purchase requisition
· Updating status, follow up and control of purchase requisitions
1.4.2Material Inspection
Do you know why material inspection is required? You would have noticed that even housewives carry out the inspection of procured grocery of weekly/monthly purchases and if it is of low quality, they return it or shall never purchase from such vendors and can even blacklist them. This is what happens in the industry also. If incoming material procured is not as per specifications and in line with the desired one while ordering, the end product after manufacturing shall also be of bad quality. In case of most of factory products, quality depends a lot on quality of raw materials which are used in manufacturing the end product.
Let us now take an example of a sweet seller. If the sweet seller is not careful about the quality of his basic raw material of sweets like Maida, Khoa, sugar or ghee etc , the end products like Jalebi or Burfi shall be of bad quality. So unless and until his supplier is either a trusted one, he must carry out incoming inspection of the ordered material carrying out a sample check otherwise his customers shall reject his sweets resulting in losses or he may have to even close his shop. There is also a constant fear with the sweet seller that if the quality is low, his customers may switch over to his competitor in his close neighborhood.
So now material inspection is clear, we can enumerate the activities involved in material inspection as under.
· Handling of control samples
· Recording of additional/new specifications
· Receipt and inspection of material
· Reporting and handling of discrepancies (defective or broken during the transportation)
1.4.3 Warehousing operations
After requisitioning of material and material inspection of incoming material, warehouse is ready to carry out its daily operations. In daily operations, the activities involved are issue of material to the shop floor in the manufacturing warehouse. After issue of the material, order pickers fetch the material from the shelves of the storage space either manually or through movable fork lifts. If it is a retail warehouse say for garments located let us say in the vicinity of Dehradun , then it involves picking the garments from the shelves, moving them to an area where they could be repacked to service the orders received from various Malls located in Dehradun city. Sometimes price tags are also put in the warehouses and then they are dispatched from the outgoing section of the warehouse after loading them in trucks/ containers.
Lately there is lot of use of information technology in providing flexibility in operations of warehouses. IT Software like warehouse management system , Robotics and automation in terms of automated forklifts, hand held I-Pods , RFID (Radio Frequency identification ) technology etc have lot of applications in warehouse operations and we shall discuss these topics later on in detail.
Check your progress Exercise B
1. What are the three important activities which take place in a Warehouse?
2. What is the role of an order picker?
3. What is the purpose of inspection?
4.What is a “stock-out” situation.?
1.5 Benefits of warehousing
Warehouses are built basically to give storage support to manufacturing and Retailing. The built up inventory of l items in a manufacturing unit supports the requirement of material required on the shop-floor to assemble or build finished product. In Retail sector, build up inventory in warehouse helps to avoid stock out on the retail shelves. Stock out is not a desirable feature because if customer faces stock out situation after visiting the mall/store, he will switch over to another competitor. Thus build up inventory to a certain extent helps in serving the customers in Retail sector quickly and to avoid lost sale. Likevise in a manufacturing sector, stock out condition can bring the assembly line to a screeching halt resulting in loss of manpower, time and other resources which were used to build up the assembly line. To give you an example if a sweet seller while preparing sweets faces a stock out situation say for sugar, he will loose lot of money and time and he can not provide the end product to his customers. As such he must build up some inventory for his raw materials like Maida, Ghee , sugar, milk etc.
In industry, let us see first what are the steps involved in manufacturing a product and then taking it to the customer. Suppose you are an entrepreneur and you have to manufacture personal computer. After arranging funds, land and manpower etc what you need as a first step is procurement of raw material like monitor, keyboard, mouse and other electronic components and assemble them on the shop floor in your manufacturing unit. After assembly of these PCs , they are tested and after passing through quality checks are packed and are made ready to be dispatched for selling them to end customers. PCs are transported in trucks, rail, and ship or by air depending on local or global market. However for selling on a large scale one requires the services of stockists, wholesalers and dealers who have a better knowledge of market in their territories and have developed good relationship with their customers as they remain always directly in touch with the customers. And that is their advantage. The stockists and ,wholesalers require Godowns or warehouses to stock the goods to be sold so that they can service their customers better. Apart from servicing the customers in an efficient manner, warehouses are also used to save transportation costs. The benefits can be divided in following two categories
1.5.1 Economic benefits
1.5.2 Service benefits.
We shall now discuss each of these benefits as below.
1.5.1 Economic Benefits.
There are actually four methods to save transportation costs resulting into economic benefits.
1. Consolidation
2. Break-bulk and cross Dock
3. Processing /postponement
4. Stockpiling
1. Consolidation
This is nothing but shipment consolidation. Here the idea is to first collect all the material transported by manufacturing plant A, manufacturing plant B and manufacturing plant C in an intermediate warehouse which are destined to same customer. The place is chosen somewhere in between so that the overall transportation costs get reduced. One has to see also what is overall cost of introducing a warehouse including fixed and variable cost and make a judgment whether it makes sense to introduce a warehouse in between rather than transporting materials from individual plant A,B,C directly to the same customer. Refer the consolidation warehouse below in the figure1 where material from plant A, B and c has been consolidated and sent overall to the same customer.
Figure 1
In order to provide effective consolidation, each manufacturing plant must use the warehouse as a forward stock location or as a sorting and assembly facility. The primary benefit of consolidation is that it combines the logistical flow of several small shipments to a specific market area. Consolidation warehousing may be used by a single firm or number of firms may join together and use a for-hire consolidation service. Through the use of such program, each individual manufacturer or shipper can enjoy lower distribution cost that could be realized on a direct shipment basis individually.
Break bulk and cross dock
Here material for several nearby customers say A,B and C received from a manufacturing unit is separated for each customer and repacked and transported once again .Please refer the figure 2
Figure 2
Here the breakbulk warehouse or terminal sorts or splits individual orders and arranges for local delivery
Because the long distance transportation movement is a large shipment, transport costs are lower and there is less difficulty in tracking.
A cross dock facility is similar except that it involves multiple manufacturers. Retail chains make extensive use of cross dock operation to replenish fast moving store inventory. Retailers bring the material in bulk nearby to a city and then as per the requirements they repack and transport in smaller packets and send them to various malls/stores located in the city at different locations.
Processing /Postponement
Warehouses can also be used to postpone or delay production by performing processing and light manufacturing activity. A warehouse with packaging or labeling capability allows postponement of final production until actual demand is known.
Stockpiling
Some of the products like agricultural products are harvested in a particular season and there can be a stockpiling due to bumper crop. In such a case it requires huge space in warehouses. Seasonal storage is here essential in such businesses. Stockpiling thus provides an inventory buffer which allows production efficiencies within the constraints imposed by material sources and the customer.
Having discussed economic benefits as above now let me explain service benefits. What I mean from service benefits is benefits arising to customer in order to render him better services. Let me tell you that service to customers is very essential as business servives because of the business and they actually are very purpose of the business.
1.5.2 Service benefits.
Five basic benefits are achieved through warehousing viz spot stock,assortment,mixing,product support and market presence .I shall discuss each of them now as below
Spot stock
Here the inventory in warehouses is created adjacent to key customers just prior to a maximum period of seasonal sales like during Diwali or christmas. Suppliers of agricultural products to farmers often use spot stocking to position their products closer to a service sensitive market during the growing season .
Assortment
An assortment warehouse – which may be utilized by a manufacturer,wholesaler or retailer stocks products combinations for example catering to athletes one can have wide variety of sport shoes,sport wears and apparels in their warehouses. As a second example the wholesaler would create a specific team uniform including shirts, pants and shoes. Assortment warehouses improve service by reducing the number of suppliers that a customer must deal with. The combined assortments also allow larger shipment quantities which in turn reduce transportation costs. The distribution assortment warehouse usually has a broad product line, is limited to few strategic locations and is functional year round.
Mixing
In a mixing situation, truck loads of products are shipped from manufacturing plants to warehouses . Each large shipment enjoys the lowest transportation rate.Upon arrival at the mixing warehouse , factory shipments are unloaded and the desired combination of each product for each customer or market is selected. This would be more clear from the figure 3.
Figure 3
In the figure above, a product D is mixed at the intermediate warehouse for select customers like W and X .
Production support
Production support warehousing provides a steady support of components and materials to assembly plants.the most economical total cost solution may be the operation of a production support warehouse to supply or feed processed materials, components and sub-assemblies into the assembly plant in an economic and timely manner. Please refer the figure 4 where subassembly and raw materials from supplier A, B and c is stocked n a manufacturing warehouse so that there is a regular and un-interrupted supply to the assebbly plant.
Figure 4
Market presence
Local warehouses located near the markets can be more responsive to the customer needs thereby helping marketing to customers. Marketing managers find such warehouses as a major advantage of local warehouses. Such warehouses are able to deliver the finished products with quicker delivery period as compared to warehouses which are located at larger distances. A local warehouse can enhance can enhance market share and increase profitability.
Check your progress Exercise C
1. What are the four methods of transportation resulting into four economic benefits.?
2. Name the five service benefits resulting to customers.
1.6 Warehouse Organization
Dear students, by this time you would have realized that there are numerous activities happening in a warehouse and in order to ensure that these activities happen smoothly day in day out, one requires an organization structure which is suitable to carry on various activities productively and efficiently.
Traditionally in a manufacturing organization, there is a position of Store manager or warehouse manager .Warehouse manager is now a more popular designation lately than classical Store Manager.In medium and small sized organizations, the Store Division is normally under the control of the Works Manager.Store Head works at par with production headr , IT/ MIS head or finance head as shown below
WORKS MANAGER
Admin Head Finanace head Production Head Purchase head Store Head IT Head
Organization structure of a small manufacturing organization
In larger organizations, store head reports to Material Head together with Purchase Head as shown below
General Manager
Production finance Material Manager Marketing Human Resource and Admin Planning
Purchase Store/warehouse Manager
Manager
Organization Chart of a large organization
Organization structure of a Store Division
The important functions which are carried out in Store are as under.
Stores Manager
IT Manager
Maintenance engineer
Warehouse officer
Inspection Officer
Inventory controller
Store keepers (can be more than one)
Warehouse Operations manager
Supervisor, stock Records section
Depending on the complexity, manpower may vary however below is a general organization structure of a warehouse organization
Store/Warehouse Manager
inventory controller Warehouse operation store officer IT Manager
Manager -Inspection officer
-Store keepers
-Material clerk -Labour
-Data entry operator -maintenance Engineer
- Order Pickers and other operational staff
- Transport and dispatch section
- Labour
-Fork lift operators
You would have seen that based on the activities discussed above, the organization structure has evolved. This structure is true for one warehouse. In the above structure, delegation of authorities have been clearly defined and Store/warehouse manager is overall in-charge of operational, financial ,IT and administrative section.
1.7 Functions and duties of Store/warehouse staff
We shall now discuss the functions and duties of each category of following staff.
· Stores Manager
· IT Manager
· Maintenance engineer
· Warehouse officer
· Inspection Officer
· Inventory controller
· Store keepers (can be more than one)
· Warehouse Operations manager
Functions and duties of Store Manager
Basic Functions
Store Manager is overall boss of the warehouse who ensures safe and efficient receipt, storage and issue of all materials and equipment stored in the warehouse and other related areas. He ensures keeping up to date stock levels of materials, equipment and consumables. He is responsible for smooth operation of warehousing activity. As he is in close touch with the market through the purchase orders received, his inputs are considered to be valuable for Sales Forecasting .
Duties
· His responsibility is to manage and supervise the activities of personnel assigned to store/warehouse division.
· Planning and coordination for ensuring safe and correct receipt, storage and issue of all materials and equipment from the warehouse
· Preparing detailed procedures for issuing and receiving stock, loading , unloading and storing of material
· Overseeing processing of physical inventories documentation without any discrepancies
· Coordinates the material documentation and stock data, ensuring that materials and their movements are accurately entered into file, replenishment and stock data is maintained and updated and all stock data reports are regularly issued and processed.
· Maintains strict material control, including reviewing of purchase orders and determining validity of requests according to job requirements prior to releasing material and ensuring that all surplus material are returned to the warehouse.
· Recommends quantities and types of surplus materials and equipments to be sold and and processes the relevant documentation.
· Coordinates the reports and recommendations to the management regarding material control system and procedures, stock levels and forecasts of a need as a result of historical data comparisons and coordination with other divisional heads.
· Training subordinates and ensuring good housekeeping and observance of safety rules.
· Assisting in commissioning technology up gradation projects
Function and duties of IT manager
Function
Function of an IT manager is to continue upgrade IT ,telecommunication and automation technology upgraded and keep the local area and wide area network up ,all the software and hardware upgraded and well maintained, ensuring security against virus or hacking,and solving day to day problems of warehousing personnel especially in inventory control area and operational area.
Duties
· Ensuring upkeep of local area networks comprising of computers, printers, scanners, handheld I-pods
· Ensuring good maintenance of hardware and software
· Coordinating and introducing IT related projects for flexible and faster operations of warehousing activities.
Function and Duties of maintenance Engineer
Functions
Maintenance engineer has to keep electrical and mechanical systems running including DG Gen set, air-conditioning for cold chain warehouses, upkeep of Uninterrupted power supply, electrical light system, maintenance of forklifts etc.
Duties
· To coordinate with IT manager to keep electrical and automation systems up and running in coordination with IT manager
· To do preventive and routine maintenance of electrical and mechanical systems
Functions and duties of Warehouse Officer
Functions
Supervise the activities of personnel assigned to warehouse and inspection section
Duties
Receiving , storing and issuing
Coordinate the safe and efficient movement, storage and issue of all materials and equipments
Ensuring suitable storage conditions/environment like air-conditioning and humidity control for each class of material as per guidelines from manufacturer
Ensuring safety and security and housekeeping of all storage locations and materials
Examining items received through return notes and repair requisitions for further actions
Arranging identification of all non moving/obsolete/expired/damaged items
Inspection
· Planning, supervising and coordinating the off loading and storage of major deliveries
· To coordinate closely with inspection personnel for inspection of the consignment
· Coordinating with inventory control and engineers for inspection of complex incoming material
· Supervising routine inventory activity as an administrative function
Reviewing guidelines, systems and procedures
· Reviews and recommends procedures for loading, unloading,storing,issuing and control of materials, minimizing losses from deterioration,obsolescence and maintain high standard of safety and security
Function and Duties of Inspection officer
Duties
· To supervise the activities of inspection controllers
· To receive, inspect and ensure proper packing and dispatch of items/equipment for outside repair
· To inspect high value and critical materials in coordination with requisitioning user
Function and Duties of Inventory Controller
· To ensure timely replenishment of items
· To monitor movement of vital items
· To ensure complete and correct specifications in all requisition
· To minimize inventory so as to reduce inventory carrying costs
Duties
Replenishment of items
Accurate and timely replenishment of stored items
Analysis of requisitions based on commodities or groups/subgroups
Analysis of forecasted requirements based on feedback from users
Reviewing non moving and nil stock items for taking corrective action
Arranging updating descriptions, specifications, working quantities based on the feedback from inspectors or users
Specifications
Describes and forms specifications
Catalog and Manuals
Maintains and updates list of equipment, catalogs and manuals for assigned area of work
Coordination
Coordinates with personnel in warehousing , purchasing, customs and traffic and plant operations for providing clarifications
Function and Duties of Store Keeper
Function
Supervises and participates in the receiving, checking , tagging, binning, storage, physical movement and good housekeeping of assigned storage locations
Ensures proper operation and maintenance of all assigned material handling equipment
Reviews, plans and recommends efficient allocation of storage space
Ensures timely movement of materials from inspection area to bins and bins to delivery points as per procedures
Duties
Receiving, checking and storing
Supervises and participates in receiving,checking,tagging,binning,physical movementand housekeeping of assigned storage location, implementation of procedures and control
Ensures proper operation and maintenance od all assigned material handling equipment
Reviews,plans and recommends efficient allocation of storage space
Ensures timely movement of materials from inspection area to bins and bins to delivery points as per procedure
Safety, security and housekeeping
Responsible for safety and security of assigned stores and all material
Responsible for good housekeeping and protecting materials and facilities from dust, moisture, heat and other factors which may cause deterioration
Segregating expired items and recommending their disposal
Inventory audit
Supervises the stores Assistants/assistant storekeepers assigned for his area
Coordinates and assists in inventory audit
Function and Duties of warehouse operation Manager
Function and duties
Large warehouses have this vital function of warehouse operation manager so as to ensure smooth operation of the warehouse. He is responsible to remove any bottleneck in the work flow of a warehouse. His area of operation starts right from incoming material section, store replenishment and sorting by order pickers and forklift operators and dispatch section to ensure that there are no queues and material movement is smooth throughout the warehouse area. He has to take immediate decisions to clear the various areas and avoid breakdowns and blockages in material inflow and outflow.
Check your progress Exercise D
1. Name the important functions which are carried out in store division.
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2. To whom does Store/warehouse manager report in a manufacturing organization?
1.8 Summary
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, wholesalers, exporters and importers and transporters. It is an integral part of Logistics so as to increase responsiveness to customers in the marketplace for business organizations. The activities in Warehousing include
· Receiving
· Inspection/ Acceptance
· Proper Storage
· Order preparation and order picking
· Dispatching/ Delivery/Loading on the trucks
· Inventory management
There are two kind of benefits of warehousing viz economic and service benefits.
The economic benefits result due to savings in transportation costs viz
1. Consolidation
2. Break-bulk and cross Dock
3.Processing /postponement
4. Stockpiling
The service benefits are benefits arising to end customer in the marketplace and comprise of majorly five benefits viz spot stock, assortment, mixing, product support and market presence.
To run a warehouse , one requires a proper organization structure in a warehouse The important functionaries in a warehouse are store manager, IT Manager, Maintenance engineer, Warehouse officer, Inspection Officer, Inventory controller, Store keepers (can be more than one),Warehouse Operations manager.
1.9 Bibloigraphy
Reference book—Warehousing Management & Inventory control-Saxena
Logistics Management – By Donald . J. Bowersox,David. J.Closs
1.100 Exercise A. Answer 1: Purpose of a warehouse is to store material safely and in order
Answer 2: Tick all four options and all are correct.
Answer 3 : Purpose of a forklift is to fetch the material from the shelves of the warehouse and to transport it to Dispatch section. They are also used to bring the material from incoming department to store department and put it in shelves by order pickers.
Answer 4. Inventory in a warehouse is all the material kept in the storage warehouse.
Answer 5.The material stored in a warehouse consist of chemicals, raw material, stationery , electrical items, tools and tackles, lubricants and oils etc etc.
1.101 Exercise B. Answer 1 .The three important activities are 1. Requisitioning of materials 2. Material inspection 3. Warehousing operations
Answer 2: The role of an order picker is to sort the material from the shelves of warehouse and transport it to dispatch section. They also bring incoming material in the warehouse to put it in shelves of the storage area of warehouse.
Answer 3: Purpose of material inspection in the warehouse is to ensure quality of the incoming material and avoid defective and broken items during transit
Answer 4 :“stock out” situation means non-availability of the material when order picker reaches to fetch the material from the shelves.
1.102 Exercise C
Answer 1: 4 methods of saving costs of transportation are1. Consolidation 2. Break-bulk and cross Dock 3.Processing/postponement 4. Stockpiling
Answer 2: 5 ways of service through warehousing are spot stock, assortment, mixing, product support and market presence.
1.103 Exercise D Answer1. The important functionaries in a store department are Stores Manager
IT Manager, Maintenance engineer, Warehouse officer, Inspection Officer, Inventory controller, Store keepers (can be more than one), Warehouse Operations manager, Supervisor, stock Records section
Answer 2 : Store manager in a manufacturing organization reports to To material manager
1.10 Terminal Questions
1. There are five basic service benefits achieved through warehousing: Viz: Spot stock, Assortment, mixing , production support , market presence. Explain each of them.
2. Explain the economic benefits of Warehousing with diagrams in terms of A) Consolidation B) Break Bulk AND Cross Dock C) Processing /Postponement D) Stockpiling
3. Explain the function and duties of the following officials in warehousing.
A) Store manager b) Inventory controller c) Inspection officer d) Supervisor stock record section
4. What are the three different activities in a warehouse? Explain each of them in detail.
5. Explain the importance of warehousing to a transporter, manufacturer and a wholesaler?
