DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS &

INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT
VNSGU, Surat

SUBJECT:
SSCM
Topic:

ware housing
Class:
MBA (Sem- 4, Div. - B)

Submitted By:
Patel Sandip

SUBMITED TO:

Dr. V.B. Patel

Warehousing
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by
manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are
usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns and villages. They usually
have loading docks to load and unload goods from trucks. Sometimes warehouses are designed
for the loading and unloading of goods directly from railways, airports, or seaports. They
often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on ISO standard
pallets loaded into pallet racks. Stored goods can include any raw materials, packing materials,
spare parts, components, or finished goods associated with agriculture, manufacturing and
production.

Function of Warehousing
Historically warehouses were a dominant part of the urban landscape from the start of the
Industrial Revolution through the 19th century and into the twentieth century. The buildings
remained when their original usage had changed. There are four identifiable types of warehouses.
The cotton industry rose with the development of the warehouse, and all five types were
represented in Manchester in the United Kingdom. Warehouses of that period in Manchester
were often lavishly decorated, but modern warehouses are more functional.
Warehouse allow transport optimization along the supply chain, and allow companies to work
with an optimal inventory (economic order quantity) regarding service quality. For example, at
the terminal point of a transport system it is necessary to stockpile produce until a full load can
be transported. Warehouses can also be used to store the unloaded goods from the vessel.
In industries whose goods require a period of maturation between production and retail, such as
viniculture and cheesemaking, warehouses can be used to store the goods in large quantities.
Display of goods for sale

These displayed goods for the home trade. This would be finished goods- such as the latest
cotton blouses or fashion items. Their street frontage was impressive, so they took the styles of
Italianate Palazzos.
Richard Cobden's construction in Mosley Street was the first palazzo warehouse. There were
already seven warehouses on Portland Street when they commenced building the elaborate Watts
Warehouse of 1855, but four more were opened before it was finished. It was this type of
warehouse that inspired the Germans in Dsseldorf and Munich to name their prestigious
department stores Warehouse.
Overseas warehouses
These catered for the overseas trade. They became the meeting places for overseas wholesale
buyers where printed and plain could be discussed and ordered. [1] Trade in cloth in Manchester
was conducted by many nationalities.
Behrens Warehouse is on the corner of Oxford Street and Portland Street. It was built for Louis
Behrens & Son by P Nunn in 1860. It is a four storey predominantly red brick build with 23 bays
along Portland Street and 9 along Oxford Street. [3] The Behrens family were prominent in
banking and in the social life of the German Community in Manchester.[4] [5]
Packing warehouses
The main purpose of packing warehouses was the picking, checking, labelling and packing of
goods for export.[1] The packing warehouses: Asia House, India House and Velvet House along
Whitworth Street were some of the tallest buildings of their tim
Railway warehouses
Warehouses were built close to the major stations in railway hubs. The first railway warehouse to
be built was opposite the passenger platform at the terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway. There was an important group of warehouses around London Road station (now
Piccadilly station).In the 1890s the Great Northern Railway Companys warehouse was
completed on Deans gate: this was the last major railway warehouse to be built.[1]
The London Warehouse Piccadilly was one of four warehouses built by the Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in about 1865 to service the new London Road Station. It
had its own branch to the Ashton Canal. This warehouse was built of brick with stone detailing.
It had cast iron columns with wrought iron beams.

Canal warehouses

All these warehouse types can trace their origins back to the canal warehouses which were used
for trans-shipment and storage. Castle field warehouses are of this type- and important as they
were built at the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal in 1761.

Automation and optimization

Some warehouses are completely automated, and require only operators to work and handle the
entire task. Pallets and product move on a system of automated conveyors, cranes and automated
storage and retrieval systems coordinated by programmable logic controllers and computers
running logistics automation software. These systems are often installed in refrigerated
warehouses where temperatures are kept very cold to keep product from spoiling, especially in
electronics warehouse where they require specific temperature to avoid damaging the parts, and
also where land is expensive, as automated storage systems can use vertical space efficiently.
These high-bay storage areas are often more than 10 meters (33 feet) high, with some over 20
meters (65 feet) high. Automated storage systems can be built up to 40m high.
For a warehouse to function efficiently, the facility must be properly slotted. Slotting addresses
which storage medium a product is picked from (pallet rack or carton flow), and how they are
picked (pick-to-light, pick-to-voice, or pick-to-paper). With a proper slotting plan, a warehouse
can improve its inventory rotation requirementssuch as first in, first out (FIFO) and last in,
first out (LIFO)control labor costs and increase productivity.[8]
Pallet racks are commonly used to organize a warehouse. It is important to know the dimensions
of racking and the number of bays needed as well as the dimensions of the product to be stored. [9]
Clearance should be accounted for if using a forklift or pallet mover to move inventory.

Modern trends

Traditional warehousing has declined since the last decades of the 20th century, with the gradual
introduction of Just In Time techniques. The JIT system promotes product delivery directly from
suppliers to consumer without the use of warehouses. However, with the gradual implementation
of offshore outsourcing and offshoring in about the same time period, the distance between the
manufacturer and the retailer (or the parts manufacturer and the industrial plant) grew
considerably in many domains, necessitating at least one warehouse per country or per region in
any typical supply chain for a given range of products.
Recent retailing trends have led to the development of warehouse-style retail stores. These highceiling buildings display retail goods on tall, heavy duty industrial racks rather than conventional
retail shelving. Typically, items ready for sale are on the bottom of the racks, and crated or
palletized inventory is in the upper rack. Essentially, the same building serves as both warehouse
and retail store.
Another trend relates to Vendor-managed inventory (VMI). This gives the vendor the control to
maintain the level of stock in the store. This method has its own issue that the vendor gains
access to the warehouse.
Large exporters and manufacturers use warehouses as distribution points for developing retail
outlets in a particular region or country. This concept reduces end cost to the consumer and
enhances the production sale ratio.

Cross docking is a specialised type of distribution center (DC) in that little or no inventory is
stored and product is received, processed (if needed) and shipped within a short timeframe. As in
warehousing, there are different types of cross docks.
Reverse logistics is another type of warehousing that has become popular for environmental
reasons. The term refers to items that are going from the end user back to the distributor or
manufacturer.

Cool warehouses and cold storage

Cold storage preserves agricultural products. Refrigerated storage helps in eliminating sprouting,
rotting and insect damage. Edible products are generally not stored for more than one year.
Several perishable products require a storage temperature as low as -25 C.
Cold storage helps stabilize market prices and evenly distribute goods both on demand basis and
time basis. The farmers get the opportunity of producing cash crops to get remunerative prices.
The consumers get the supply of perishable commodities with lower fluctuation of prices.
Ammonia and Freon compressors are commonly used in cold storage warehouses to maintain the
temperature. Ammonia refrigerant is cheaper, easily available and has a high latent heat of
evaporation but it is also highly toxic and can form an explosive mixture when mixed with oil
containing high percentage of carbon. Insulation is also important, to reduce loss of cold and to
keep different sections of the warehouse at different temperatures.
There are two main types of refrigeration system used in cold storage warehouses, a Vapour
absorption system (VAS) and Vapour compression system (VCS). VAS, although comparatively
costlier, is quite economical in operation and adequately compensates the higher initial
investment.
The temperature necessary for preservation depends on the storage time required and the type of
product. In general, there are three groups of products, foods that are alive (e.g. fruits and
vegetables), foods that are no longer alive and have been processed in some form (e.g. meat and
fish products), and commodities that benefit from storage at controlled temperature (e.g. beer,
tobacco).
Location is a very critical aspect for the success of cold storage. It should be in close proximity
of a growing area as well as a market, be easily accessible for heavy vehicles, and have
uninterrupted power supply.