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Warehouse Management

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Warehouse Management

A Complete Guide to Improving Efficiency and Minimizing Costs in the Modern Warehouse

Kogan Page,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Modern warehouses present a managerial challenge. Take a look behind the scenes.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

If you’re not in the warehouse business, you may be surprised to learn what is happening inside modern facilities. And if you’re an insider, you know exactly what is going on – or what the potential is – and you’ll welcome this solid manual on warehouse management. Far more than just a great big storage shed in an industrial neighborhood, the up-to-date warehouse may be a space-age environment where robots roll efficiently back and forth, guided by a state-of-the-art radio system as they collect ordered merchandise. Supply chain consultant Gwynne Richards has written a knowledgeable book on warehouse operations that details today’s facilities and their management challenges. With a bit of notice to US readers that the book has a UK orientation, getAbstract recommends this masterful manual to logistics and warehouse managers – especially new ones – as well as to external suppliers, facility planners and designers, and anyone in the supply chain who seeks insight about warehouse operations. Come on inside the loading dock and have a look around.

Summary

Warehousing Today

Did the advent of just-in-time or on-demand manufacturing and delivery render warehouses passé, at least as bulk-storage facilities? No. With e-commerce sales, overseas production and consumers who want quick gratification, warehouses remain – and will continue to be – essential parts of the supply chain.

Stock storage, which is warehousing’s main raison d’être, fulfills many needs: It helps merchandisers meet consumers’ demand for variable, seasonal, immediately available products; it allows wholesalers to use bulk-buying discounts; and it enables manufacturers to send bigger shipments to reduce transport costs. Convenient storage bridges the gap between producers and consumers. Warehouses also stockpile goods to hedge against manufacturing shutdowns, amass emergency supplies until needed for natural disasters and safely contain large amounts of everything, from documents to collectibles that appreciate with age, such as coins or fine wines.

However, storing products – whether in the form of raw materials, completed goods or partially built items awaiting processing – is not warehouses’ only function. They’re also way stations, “sub-assembly...

About the Author

Gwynne Richards directs Apprise Consulting Ltd., a UK logistics and supply chain consultancy. He has more than 30 years experience in logistics and supply-chain operations and is a board member of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association.

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