We need warehouses in a variety of different situations, such as consolidating all of our raw material supply.
Suppose you are a company owner who has two plants and four raw material suppliers. Now, you could ship those raw material suppliers directly into both of your plants – but- there is a better way, and that is to use a warehouse between the suppliers and the plants.
The warehouse will be the place to receive the raw material from the four suppliers to eventually ship out assembled raw materials as needed.
Now, if you think of it – businesses with a warehouse have several advantages, which are given below.
Keep reading.
Efficiency
The first advantage of having a warehouse is all about efficiency. You can create efficiency in the transportation of the raw material because you focus on each raw material lane specifically that you will have organized using racks and pallet cage.
You can also achieve efficiency in inventory because you can keep and hold the inventory where it is needed and just as much as you need. The production department can also benefit from the warehouse because the production facilities get the re-supplies whenever they need them.
So, with a warehouse, your business efficiency will reach another level.
Movement
Warehouses are exclusively made to facilitate the movement of products and materials by receiving them and by transferring them across the warehouse. Your warehouse employees will pick up the products/ raw materials when needed and facilitate their shipment.
Speaking of the products, the warehouse facilitates storage. As a business owner, you will want to have an assortment of products at your warehouse readily available for when the customers want them. If you think about it – the warehouse is the exclusive place to store all the products in a strategic and organized way.
Risk Pooling
Another advantage of having a warehouse for your business is risk pooling. With a warehouse, you will be holding your inventory in one fixed location rather than having the inventory scattered across a network of companies.
This way, with the help of a warehouse, your service level will be higher than if you had no warehouse in the first place.
Information
With a warehouse, you will always have information ready about your inventory. You will have real-time information about when the products and raw materials are coming in, along with what inventory you currently have in your warehouse and when it is going to be shipped.
As mentioned before, the warehouse will facilitate your products by keeping them in one place. You will want to use the latest software and technology in your software to keep real-time track of your inventory. By doing so, you will save a lot of time and money.
The Takeaway
Today’s customers want instant gratification, and you can do that with a warehouse. Whenever a customer demands something, you can instantly check the inventory and ship it out.
Quality and productivity also go hand-in-hand with a warehouse – you will want to reduce as much as possible and reuse as much as possible, and a warehouse can help you achieve just that.