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, 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. In Indian English a warehouse may be
referred to as a godown.
History :
The origins of the warehouse are difficult to pinpoint.
Early civilizations relied on storage pits rather than large structures to
protect seeds and surplus food. Sociologists like Alain Testart have argued
that these early storage techniques were essential to the evolution of
societies.
Some of the earliest examples of warehouses that resemble
the buildings of today are Roman horrea. These were rectangular buildings,
built of stone, with a raised ground floor and overhanging roof to keep the
walls cool and dry. Roman horrea were typically used to store grain, but other
consumables such as olive oil, wine, clothing and even marble were also stored
inside.
Though horrea were built throughout the Roman empire, some
of the most studied examples are found in or around Rome, particularly at
Ostia, a harbor city that served ancient Rome. The Horrea Galbae, a warehouse
complex in the southern part of ancient Rome, demonstrates that these buildings
could be substantial, even by modern standards. The horrea complex contained
140 rooms on the ground floor alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square
feet (21,000 m²). As a point of reference, less than half of U.S. warehouses
today are larger than 100,000 square feet (9290 m²).
As attested by legislation concerning the levy of duties,
medieval merchants across Europe commonly kept goods in household storerooms,
often on the ground floor or one or more storeys below the ground. However,
dedicated warehouses could be found around ports and other commercial hubs to
facilitate overseas trade. Examples of these buildings include the Venetian
fondaci, which combined a palace, warehouse, market and living quarters for
lodging travelers. A number of representative medieval warehouses can also be
seen in King's Lynn, U.K., where a complex of buildings, including
dwelling-houses, shops, counting houses and warehouses, once served the
Hanseatic League.
During the industrial revolution the function of warehouses
evolved and became more specialized. Some warehouses from the period are even
considered architecturally significant, such as Manchester's cotton warehouses.
Always a building of function, in the past few decades they have adapted to
mechanization, technological innovation and changes in supply chain methods.
Warehouse function :
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.
Warehouses 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 cheese making,
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 Manchester's 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 Düsseldorf 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. 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. The Behrens family was prominent in banking
and in the social life of the German Community in Manchester.
Packing warehouses :
The main purpose of packing warehouses was the picking,
checking, labeling and packing of goods for export. The packing warehouses:
Asia House, India House and Velvet House along Whitworth Street were some of
the tallest buildings of their time.
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 Company’s warehouse was
completed on Deansgate: this was the last major railway warehouse to be built.
The London Warehouse Picadilly 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.
Storage and shipping systems :
Some of the most common warehouse storage systems are:
Pallet racking including selective, drive-in, drive-thru,
double-deep, pushback, and gravity flow
Mezzanine adds a semi-permanent storey of storage within a
warehouse
Vertical Lift Modules are packed systems with vertically
arranged trays stored on both sides of the unit.
Horizontal Carousels consist of a frame and a rotating
carriage of bins.
Vertical Carousels consisting of a series of carriers
mounted on a vertical closed-loop track, inside a metal enclosure.
A "piece pick" 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. Several elements make up the piece-pick
system. They include the order, the picker, the pick module, the pick area,
handling equipment, the container, the pick method used and the information
technology used. Every movement inside a warehouse must be accompanied by a
work order. Warehouse operation can fail when workers move goods without work
orders, or when a storage position is left unregistered in the system.
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.
Automation and optimization :
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.[citation needed] 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 requirements—such as first in,
first out (FIFO) and last in, first out (LIFO)—control labor costs and increase
productivity.
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. Clearance should be
accounted for if using a forklift or pallet mover to move inventory.
Modern trends :
Modern warehouses commonly use a system of wide aisle pallet
racking to store goods which can be loaded and unloaded using forklift trucks.
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 off shoring 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 high-ceiling 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 palatalized 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 specialized 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.
Cold storage and the law :
There are state and local laws that regulate the cold
storage industry, requiring safe working conditions for employees, and
operational procedures must be in accordance with these laws. Companies that
are aware of and comply with applicable regulations are more likely to pass
inspection, avoid notices of violation, and will be able to continue operating
at full capacity, ensuring greater customer service and uninterrupted product
flow.
Warehousing education :
There are few non-profit organizations which are focused on
imparting knowledge, education and research in the field of warehouse
management and its role in the supply chain industry. The Warehousing Education
and Research Council (WERC) and International Warehouse Logistics Association
(IWLA) in Illinois, United States. They provide professional certification and
continuing education programs for the industry in the country. The Australian
College of Training have government funded programs to provide personal
development and continuation training in warehousing certs II – V (Diploma),
they operate in Western Australia online and face to face, or Australia wide
for online only courses.
