As we all know by now, warehouse and distribution services are true game-changers when it comes to shipping your goods efficiently and effectively. Choosing to outsource these elements of your business to a professional service in this way only reaps benefits to you and your company. However, it’s important to understand how this process of warehousing your products and distributing them works. This leads us to the subject of today’s post, where we focus on one particular aspect of the journey: the very start. In this article, we find out just what happens when your goods are logged into a warehouse electronically.
How does it work in a warehouse?
The system of warehousing and distributing goods is one that may on first inspection seem somewhat complicated. This is understandable, as supply chains are large structures that have a great deal going on within them at every stage. Let’s put it simply: your goods are stored until they need to be shipped. Then, they’re shipped. The most complicated part, it could be argued, is the storing part in the first place.
When a warehousing centre receives your goods, they must first process them into their system. It’s crucial that this is the first action that is taken for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s so that you, the client, knows that your goods have been received at their storage location. Secondly, the warehousing facility now knows the exact amount of stock they have in their centre (it’d be a pointless business if they didn’t).
Upon receiving the pallets of stock, the company allocates it all a specific location within their storage facility’s racking. (For those that don’t know, racking is simply a large shelved storage space). This is, perhaps, the most important part of the entire warehousing process; the warehousing and distribution service needs to know exactly where the stock is ready for when the distribution vehicle must be loaded. Upon allocation, which doesn’t take long at all, the pallets are then moved to their allocated location and stowed away.
Electronic efficiency in Logistics
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when electronic logging wasn’t the standard process of receiving inbound goods to a warehousing centre; the process is streamlined, slick and efficient. Moreover, it’s a real time-saver: the process of electronically receiving and tracking stock can be completed through the simple act of scanning barcodes, automatically uploading the stock type, quantity and location to a central system. Completing this manually with a clipboard and pen and then inputting the data whilst sat at a computer (or a paper spreadsheet if you look even further back) would slow down the process tremendously.
A final word
Moving forward, our recommendation would be to take an interest in the processes that your stock goes through at the warehouse. Although we’ve painted a picture here of how simple the system used when your goods are inbound really is, warehousing and distribution services do vary in their methods. There’s nothing to worry about, though: warehousing and distribution services are professional and efficient. And we like to think we’re one of the best of the bunch.
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