Warehouse

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Old warehouses in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Inside Green Logistics Co., Kotka, Finland. The image shows goods loaded on pallets to the left of the aisle, and stacked pallets with no loads to the right of the aisle. 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. 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, or commerce.

Contents

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1 Storage and Shipping systems 2 Automation and optimization 3 Modern trends 4 Cool Warehouses/ Cold Storage o 4.1 Cold storage and the law 5 Internet impact 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading

[edit] Storage and Shipping systems

19th century warehouses in Gloucester docks in the United Kingdom, originally used to store imported corn

So-called Sust, a Middle Ages type of warehouse, in Horgen, Switzerland Some of the most common warehouse storage systems are:

Pallet rack including selective, drive-in, drive-thru, double-deep, pushback, and gravity flow Mezzanine including structural, roll formed, racks Vertical Lift Modules Horizontal Carousels

Vertical Carousels

A piece pick, also known as broken case pick, split-case pick, each pick, over-pack or pick/pack, is a type of order selection process where product is picked and handled in individual units and placed in an outer carton, tote or other container before shipping. Catalog companies and internet retailers are examples of predominantly piece-pick operations. Their customers rarely order in pallet or case quantities; instead, they typically order just one or two pieces of one or two items. Material direction and tracking in a warehouse can be coordinated by a Warehouse Management System (WMS), a database driven computer program. Logistics personnel use the WMS to improve warehouse efficiency by directing pathways and to maintain accurate inventory by recording warehouse transactions.

[edit] Automation and optimization

Automatic storage warehouse for small parts Some warehouses are completely automated, and require only operators to work and handle all the 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