Warehouse Role in Supply Chain
Storage has always been an important aspect of economic delelopment.In the pre-industrial era,storage was performed by individual households forced to function as self-sufficient economic units.Consumers performed warehousing and accepted the attendant risks.
As transportation capability developed ,it became possible to engage in specialization.Product storage shifted from households to retailers ,wholesalers,and manufacturers.Warehouse stored inventory in the logistics pipeline,serving to coordinate product supply and consumer demand.Because the value of strategic storage was not well understood,warehouses were often considered “necessary evils”that added cost to the distribution process.The concept that middlemen simply increase cost follows from that belief.The need to deliver product assortments was limited.Labor productivity,materials handling efficiency,and inventory turnover were note major concerns during this early era.Because labor was relatively inexpensive,human resourses were used freely.Little consideration was given to efficiency in space utilization,work methods,or materials handling.Despite such shortcomings,these initial warehouses provided a necessary bridge between production and marketing.原文请+QQ3249.114 优.文"论,文'网
For manufacturers,strategic warehousing offered a way to reduce holding or dwell time of materials and parts. Warehousing became integral to Just-in-Time(JIT) and stockless production strategies.While the basic notion of JIT is to reduce work-in-process inventory,such manufacturing strategies need dependable logistics.Achieving such logistical support across the U.S. geography requires strategically located warehouse.Utilizing centralized parts inventory at a central warehouse reduces the need for inventory at each assembly plant.Products can be purchased and shipped to the strategically located central warehouse,taking advantage of consolidated transportation.At the warehouse,products are sorted,sequenced,and shipped to specific manufacturing plants as need.Where fully integrated,sortation and sequencing facilities become a vital extension of manufacturing.
On the outbound side of manufacturing,warehouses can be used to create product assortments for customer shipment.The capability to receive mixed product shipments offers custormers two specific advantages.First,logistical cost is reduced because an assortment of products can be delivered while taking advantage of consolidated transportation.Second,inventory of slow-moving products can be reduced because of the capability to receive smaller quantities as part of a consolidated shipment.Manufacturers that provide assorted product shipments can achieve a competitive advantage.
An important change in warehousing is maximum flexibility.Such flexibility can ofen be achieved through information technology.Technology-based applications have influenced almost every area of warehouse operations and created new and better ways to perform storage and handling.Flexbility is also an essential part of being able to respond to expanding customer demand in terms of product assortments and the way shipments are delivered and presend.Information technology facilitates and flexibility by allowing warehouse operators to quickly react to changing customer requirements.2085