What Are The Six Basic Principles Of Warehouse Management?

Recently updated on October 25th, 2022 at 11:11 am

The warehouse plays a vital role in the journey of goods from the manufacturer to the consumer’s doorsteps.  As many think, warehouses are not only for storing the goods but also involve multiple processes from receiving the goods to shipping them to reach the customers in time. All these processes are vital for supply chain management, but they also need optimization for effective implementation.  Six principles of warehouse management ensure carrying out all these processes efficiently.

So, please continue reading about warehouse management processes and the six principles that ensure conducting them effectively to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

What are warehouse management and its benefits?

The warehouse management encompasses the many processes to run the daily operations of the warehouse.  Though these core processes are invisible to customers, they play the behind-the-scenes role to ensure that they get their deliveries in time.  It may be a medicine for saving a life, or a laptop for using in exams, and others.  Also, the other benefits include optimizing workhouse space, maximizing inventory storage and making it easy for employees to find the goods, fulfilling orders efficiently and coordinating communication between employees, suppliers, and transport companies to ensure on-time delivery.

What are the six processes of warehouse management?

For a warehouse to function efficiently, it has to do all the six processes of effective warehouse management that include.

• Receiving the incoming items with a proper check to receive the correct quantity in a safe condition and at the right time by logging all the details.
• Putting away the received items from the dock to their specific storage locations without any damages
• Storing the received goods safely and logically along with arranging inventory for enabling fast retrieval
• Picking back the goods in time fast to fulfill the sales orders
• Packing the picked goods in the correct form with precise packing slip for safe shipping
• Shipping the finalized sales orders of the picked and packed goods into the suitable vehicles on time with proper documentation for the customers to receive them safe at their doorsteps

What are the six basic principles of warehouse management?

Since warehouses have become an integral part of this globalized and digitalized world, there should be specific principles governing their management.  The warehouse management will only function adequately to not disrupt the supply chain management cycle to deliver goods to customers safely on time.  The following six principles of warehouse management will help to optimize their processes to be effective and successful.

1. Know the objectives &  purpose

Any warehouse management should know its purpose like the specific delivery requirements, serving sectors, nature of storing goods, the requirement of any specialized storage, equipment, labor, space, etc.

2. Know the volume & functional requirements

It is vital to know the quantity of the stored goods and the many functional requirements like the throughput speed like incoming goods, customer orders, dispatches, and returns.  Also, it is essential to know about the orders, particular picking requirements like in containers, cartons, pallets or single units.  Knowing the volume and functional requirements for all these processes will make it easy to optimize warehouse management like 3pl warehouse.

3. Have comprehensive control

Should have comprehensive control over the complex processes like people, moving goods, inventory, equipment, and completing orders and have a track of all their progress for smooth functioning with no issues.

4. Resilience & flexibility

Warehouse management should have the resilience and flexibility to change plans instantly to adjust workflows for situations like damages because of weather and others to rearrange warehouse space and change the picking process to maximize efficiency.

5. Customer focus

On-time delivery is vital for the entire supply chain management, and hence warehouse management has to do its part to achieve it perfectly.

6. Data-driven decision-making

Improvement is essential even for smooth warehouse management, and it is possible only with data-driven decision-making in all the processes.

The above processes and principles will surely help anyone to know about effective warehouse management for using it to improve business.