What is Warehouse Management?
Warehouse management refers to the oversight of operations within a warehouse. This includes inventory receipt, tracking, and storage, as well as staff training, transportation management, workload planning, and tracking the movement of goods.
In simple terms, warehouse management means tracking processes, people, and operations (including those carried out in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders). However, unlike other functional departments within an organization, warehouse management requires complete synchronization with all departments. Ideally, it operates in the best way, being able to function properly for the processes within the value chain.
A warehouse is a specialized storage facility designed to meet the technical and compliance guidelines for storing designated materials. Generally, it is quite a large piece of real estate and operates in different, specialized ways.
Despite the rise of online stocks and the continuously increasing number of SKUs, there is still a lack of technical knowledge regarding warehouse management. Many confuse it with inventory management, but it's important to remember that inventory management deals with specific items/materials. On the other hand, warehouse management concerns the flow and processing of inventory across the entire facility, as well as the economics, costs involved in the process.
Use a Dynamic Approach to Warehouse Operations
It is noteworthy that flexibility is a strong value proposition in today's supply chains. Therefore, using a dynamic approach for your warehouse operations is a must. You can start by creating a workflow diagram and evaluating it based on the physical layout of your storage area. This kind of audit will give you an idea of the infrastructure-level changes you may need to facilitate smoother material flow.
This method aims to make better use of the data regarding the movement of inventory items. It is equally important to train your staff to adapt to newer working principles and equipment. You should work together and create SOPs for various storage activities that keep your warehouse management system in the loop. This will help reduce the risks caused by sudden changes in priorities and excessive pressure on your supply chain.
Storage is more about understanding the data than handling your inventory. Simply put, both inventory and storage are the source of your facility, and perhaps the only way to increase profitability is to have data, maintain it, and be able to track it.
You should conduct periodic audits of your storage operations and cross-check them with inventory audits. The combined results will give you an idea of situations where you may need to rethink the warehouse layout/equipment usage, as well as possible bottlenecks.
As previously mentioned, integrating your warehouse system with other software solutions such as inventory management tools, shipping and tracking modules, sales and marketing software, CRM, procurement solutions, and accounting software, will allow you to see the bigger picture in a real way.
Today, storage has evolved from being a mandatory process to a vital business process.
