A warehouse receives stores and ships merchandise. Warehouses are normally of three types. A Public Warehouse is one that usually is owned and operated by a party other than the person who owns the goods. A Private Warehouse is one that owns both warehouse and the goods stored there. A Contract Warehouse is one that houses only those goods which are covered under a contract for space and services.
Some of the day to day activities involved in Warehouse Management are as follows:
- Product arrives from the manufacturer.
- Product is put away in an open location (either pick, rack, bulk).
- Product is picked (usually in FIFO order) from a specified location listed on a picking document.
- Product that is damaged generally has a specific location and a status of Damage.
- Product being held also has a specific location and a status of Hold.
- Products from Damage and Hold location are not shipped.
- Product that requires a quality control inspection is generally located in QC.
- Product located in QC also is not shipped straight-away. It must first pass inspection.
- Dock and Stage might be locations within the system.
A typical Warehouse will involve lot of documentation owing to the nature of it’s business. Some of the main types of documents are explained below for providing an insight into how activities are arranged within a warehouse.
- Advance Shipping Notice – This document alerts the warehouse of the pending arrival of freight.
- Bill of Lading – Legal document signed and held by the freight company transporting the goods to their destination.
- Master Bill of Lading – This document consolidates a group of bills of lading, orders, containers or pallets all moving on the same vehicle at the same time.
- Packing List – This document is attached to the merchandise (usually in a packing list envelope) being shipped or received.
- Pick Ticket/ Pick Label – A document used by the warehouse workers to pick merchandise to fill shipment orders placed by the store.
- Purchase Order – This document contains information related to the merchandise that has been ordered by the store, for the goods in the warehouse received from the concerned vendor.
- Shipping Label – An identification label affixed to a container which specifies contents of the shipping container. If the merchandise is subject to any inspections such as an FDA inspection, the shipping label must contain that inspection information as well. A shipping label used by a mail carrier lists the originating and destination addresses.
- Shipment Order – This document lists the commodities and quantities ordered by the store and designate the destination to which these commodities are to be shipped.
- Tally – A document used during the receiving process to capture the pertinent information regarding the merchandise being received.
- Warehouse Receipt – A legal document signed by the warehouse personnel accepting responsibility for the merchandise contained on the receipt.
- Warehouse Transfer – This document contains information similar to a bill of lading, however, it is used when the merchandise is being transferred between two facilities owned by the same warehouse and/or store.