In retail, success isn’t just about what you sell; it’s about how efficiently you can get products into customers’ hands — a make-or-break challenge for ecommerce businesses facing the flood of peak season orders. And with peak seasons no longer limited to just holiday shopping or defined by Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, retailers must lay the logistical groundwork to manage atypical spikes long after the holiday decorations have been put away…….Continue reading….
By: Johannes Panzer
Source: Entrepreneur
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Critics:
The need for a warehouse implies having quantities of goods too big to be stored in a domestic storeroom. But as attested by legislation concerning the levy of duties, some medieval merchants across Europe commonly kept goods in their large household storerooms, often on the ground floor or cellars. An example is the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the substantial quarters of German traders in Venice, which combined a dwelling, warehouse, market and quarters for travellers.
From the Middle Ages on, dedicated warehouses were constructed around ports and other commercial hubs to facilitate large-scale trade. The warehouses of the trading port Bryggen in Bergen, Norway (now a World Heritage Site), demonstrate characteristic European gabled timber forms dating from the late Middle Ages, though what remains today was largely rebuilt in the same traditional style following great fires in 1702 and 1955.
A good warehouse layout consist of 5 areas:
- Loading and unloading area – This is the area where goods are unloaded and loaded into the truck. It could be part of the building or separated from the building.
- Reception area – Also known as staging area, this a place where the incoming goods are processed and reviewed, and sorted before proceeding to storage.
- Storage area – This is the area of the warehouse where goods sit as it awaits dispatch. This area can be further subdivided into static storage for goods that will take longer before being dispatched and dynamic storage for goods that sell faster.
- Picking area – This is the area where goods being dispatched are prepared or modified before being shipped.
- Shipping area – Once goods have been prepared, they proceed to the packing or shipping area where they await the actual shipping.
Warehouses are generally considered industrial buildings and are usually located in industrial districts or zones (such as the outskirts of a city). LoopNet categorizes warehouses using the “industrial” property type. Craftsman Book Company’s 2018 National Building Cost Manual lists “Warehouses” under the “Industrial Structures Section.” In the UK, warehouses are classified under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as the industrial category B8 Storage and distribution.
An Overseas warehouse refers to storage facilities located abroad. It plays a pivotal role in cross-border e-commerce trade, where local businesses transport goods en masse to desired market countries then establish a warehouse to store and distribute the goods in response to local sales demands. This process includes managing tasks such as sorting, packaging, and delivering straight from the local warehouse accordingly. Overseas warehouses can be principally divided into two types: Self-operated and Third-party public service warehouses.
Self-operated overseas warehouses are established and administered by the cross-border e-commerce enterprise. They only provide logistics services like warehousing and distribution for their own goods, implying that the entire logistics system of the cross-border e-commerce enterprise is self-controlled.
On the other hand, a Third-party public service overseas warehouse is built and run by a separate logistics enterprise. There, they provide services including order sorting, multi-channel delivery, and subsequent transportation for multiple exporting e-commerce companies. This kind of warehouse broadly indicates that the entire e-commerce logistics system is under third-party control.
The fundamental business operations in overseas warehouses include the following:
1. Sellers send bulk products from their home country to an overseas warehouse where the staff undertakes inventory and shelving. When a buyer places an order, the seller sends delivery instructions to the warehouse system and local delivery is then executed based on those instructions.
2. In instances of issues with sellers’ accounts or incorrect labels, goods need to be returned to the overseas warehouse for correction and re-sale.
3. A common transfer practice combines Amazon’s FBA service with third-party overseas warehouses, where goods are initially stored and then intermittently moved to FBA for replenishment, while concurrently shipping from overseas warehouses.
4. The warehouses also handle supplementary services such as product returns and exchanges.
By using an overseas warehouse, the delivery speed has certain advantages, which can improve the product price and increase gross profit to a certain extent. At the same time, it can also improve the consumer experience and stimulate the second consumption, so as to improve the overall sales.[32]The main purpose of packing warehouses was the picking, checking, labelling and packing of goods for export. The packing warehouses:
Asia House, India House and Velvet House along Whitworth Street in Manchester were some of the tallest buildings of their time. The more efficient the pick and pack process is, the faster items can be shipped to customers. Pick and pack warehousing is the process in which fulfillment centers choose products from shipments and re-package them for distribution.
When shipments are received by the warehouse, items are stored and entered into an inventory management system for tracking and accountability. Picking refers to selecting the right quantities of products from warehouse storage. Packing, on the other hand, happens when those products are placed in shipping boxes with appropriate packaging materials, labeled, documented and shipped.
A customised storage building, a warehouse enables a business to stockpile goods, e.g., to build up a full load prior to transport, or hold unloaded goods before further distribution, or store goods like wine and cheese that require maturation. As a place for storage, the warehouse has to be secure, convenient, and as spacious as possible, according to the owner’s resources, the site and contemporary building technology. Before mechanised technology developed, warehouse functions relied on human labor, using mechanical lifting aids like pulley systems.
Breaking it down, warehouse operations covers a number of important areas, from the receiving, organization, fulfillment, and distribution processes. Warehousing has unique health and safety challenges and has been recognized by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States as a priority industry sector in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) to identify and provide intervention strategies regarding occupational health and safety issues.
Creating a safe and productive warehouse setting starts with a culture of safety. This culture should be reinforced by the managers at all levels, especially executives and owners. Creating a safe working environment begins with a safety plan that covers all parts of the warehouse and applies to all employees. Owners and managers should expect to put resources of time and money toward safety and willingly build these costs into the overall budget.
Regular training and inspections should be done to ensure that all employees are knowledgeable in fire safety processes and that all fire safety measures are in place and functioning as required.
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