What to consider before choosing a warehouse solution
- Written by News Company
You are looking for some warehouse, why? Does your current warehouse is ill-fitting or you are going to start a new business? Some people might consider expanding and changing the warehouse on the whole.
A stock house is supposed to help businesses in storing their products and items before the delivery of products to their purchasers. The staff of the warehouse has to manage the record of products stored in the depot. Location of each product received to date and number of products; all such points are kept in records to track on time. In short, it provides complete storage solutions for your products.
Retailers use these warehouses to store their products before they get dispatched to the store whereas the online marketplace store vendors keep all of their goods in warehouses to deliver to their customers once they receive the order.
What is Warehouse?
Warehouse means to store goods in a garage according to small trading companies. But as the company grows, they need more storage places to manage in a more organized way. It depends on the budget and requirements too; one can rent space for storing their products at a warehouse or go for the third party offering logistics services to handle warehousing.
Usually, warehouse solutions store products, but we also have fulfillment warehouses in the market which handle the order as well. Some businesses have arranged their fulfillment warehouses, and some enlisted third-party logistics to deliver their orders. Ecommerce stores often outsource orders to an ecommerce fulfillment service.
Core Elements of Warehouse Solutions
The right warehouse could be similar to a customized suit. This place is responsible for making your company look more professional and in control. As it has an integral role in the supply chain, and it can affect everything directly from managing supply to distribute orders to the end-users.
These three elements need full attention;
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Warehousing Management
You need to train, supervise, ensuring the safety of goods, manage to handle inventories and equipment with care; communicating effectively with the delivery team. All these activities are essential to guarantee a thriving warehouse’s operation.
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Warehouse Operation
This department of the warehouse is responsible for receiving goods, proper placement of the goods, and moving the products inside or outside the warehouse facility to the shipping carrier.
The operational department of the warehouse deals with the inventory inbound and outbound movements.
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The management system of Warehouse
There is a software called warehouse management system used to track and monitor the warehouse inventory and operations; This is used to increase the efficiency of work with fewer mistakes and reduce the mess and also helpful in optimizing orders by managing distribution and orders shipment.
There are some very important points that you should consider before choosing a warehouse solution.
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Number of SKUs
Stock keeping unit is the most important factor that you need to identify when you visit any warehouse. But before this, you have to be very clear about your specific needs and requirement. You should be aware of the storage needed; whether you need to store inventory in bulk or racks. How much storage you need, what is the compatibility between the goods that you are going to store in the warehouse?
The warehouses have SKUs that can track products, calculate charges and estimate the space needed to store inventory. The SKU ensure the rate for each pallet you are going to use for storage purpose. For example, if you sell rice, probably you need a separate space for each box. The box size can be small, medium, large or extra-large. There might be expiration dates on the sacks with six months, one year or two years. The packaging is to identify the kind of inventory like plastic or cardboard box. As the product variations increases, the charges will go up for providing storage fees.
So if you have goods with slow revenue with large SKU, you should go for an impartial warehouse as it is a cost-effective option.
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Warehouse Physical Location
Where to build your storehouse is one of the fundamental approaches to consider, as this directly affects the business. The location is going to facilitate you to store and transport your goods with the utmost ease and comfort. When searching for a warehouse, this is pretty simple to understand that the warehouse location can honestly control the supply chain. For those entrepreneurs who are new in the business industry, the location determines the fastest inventory delivery and storage.
Choose a facility that is near to the transportation hubs like the food market, railway stations, airports or bus terminals. Those warehouses that are in the cities can accomplish orders comparatively faster than the distant warehouses. But remember warehouses in rural vicinity could be much cheaper and close to transportation hubs.
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Lease Consideration
Once you decided which warehouse is the best fit for your inventory needs, you should take serious consideration of lease parameters. Only feeling confident is not enough for warehouse selection, but you have to explore all the legal aspects of the warehouse’s lease. Better to spell out in “Terms & Conditions” which party is responsible for which requirement. The basis of the contract can be on the internal repair of the warehouse to the external maintenance of the facility. Who is going to check the warehouse, and what would be the fine in case of any damage? Also, this is always a good idea to generate a signed contingent on repairs and security of the vicinity.
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Types of Inventory
Not every warehouse offers specific conveniences like cold storage, whereas some do not allow storing alcohol or flammable items in their warehouses. So the products you are selling are the most important factor in determining the best warehouse.
You should keep in mind that the warehouse is going to provide you temperature-controlled storage place if you have food products or dairy stuff. If you sell delicate products, you have to consider the warehouse is suitable for your inventory or not. And if your products need strict safety measurements for handling, you must go for those warehouses that have trained and experienced staff. There should be fire alarms, sprinkles and the team must be well equipped in reducing the risk factors.
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Latest Technology
The warehouse place that you have selected should have the latest technology and market-driven software that can help you in tracking the inventory and shipping the orders. The fulfillment software is efficient enough to run your operations successfully in no time. This software can automate various activities that are part of the order accomplishment procedure. You can use them for collecting purchase orders, shipment tracking, managing the inventory goods, packaging orders and labeling of the, or delivering the orders to the customers.
Final Words
For sure, it is a challenge when you step into the warehouses to choose one for your business and needs careful consideration. But this is not impossible to find the right warehouse; all you need to do is proper planning, make yourself clear about the ground requirements. If you know what kind of warehouse can help you in flourishing your business, you can get the best.