New warehouse start-up
As each day passes by, customer expectations keep increasing. Though it feels like what big deal, the amount of stress it put on the supply chain of the organization is huge. The organization’s supply chain is sandwiched between growing expectations of customers and the cost of operations. Though there are many ways to ease out this pressure on the supply chain, the one solution which works out well in most of the scenarios is – being close to the customer. That means the Finished goods are kept closer to the customer and similar way all the raw material required for the organization is kept closer to them as well. This significantly increased the requirement for Warehouses and distribution centers.
Though it looks like a pretty straightforward job; Warehouse, if not well designed and implemented, will result in a huge negative impact on the margins as well as result in very bad customer experience. Many organizations think that just by outsourcing this warehousing activity, all these kinds of issues can be sorted out. But the hard reality is whether it is an own warehouse or an outsourced to my house if it is not well designed to suit the operations, then it will do the above-stated negative impact on the organization and its performance.
“Warehouse start-ups include planning, design, implementation and inventory transfer. A perfect time to implement transformational changes in warehouse operations”
– Alvis Lazarus
Key activities involved within a warehouse start-up is stated below:
Before even the organization starts to look for a warehouse, the required space has to be arrived at based on the business forecast as well as the current stocking pattern or requirement. This has to be scientifically arrived at and so many factors impacted; if not done well, either the warehouse will be empty after implementation or it will be running full within few months of implementation.
In addition to this space required in the warehouse, location of the warehouse, infrastructure in the warehouse, external space available, docks available in the warehouse, and all other nuances as part of warehouse operations are also equally important. So it is very important that all these key requirements or documented made as a checklist, and used to finalize the warehouse.
Even today many organizations did not realize the crucial little of designing every element within the warehouse. It is high time we should realize the importance of designing as a house to suit the operations. A well-designed warehouse will do the following designs effectively – storage, material handling, equipment, material flow, safety, compliance, lighting, and ventilation