MATERIALS HANDLING SYSTEM DESIGN - Environmentally Conscious Materials Handling - page 25

service to customers and be responsive to their needs appears to be the pri-
mary reason. Nevertheless, there are certain operations that are common to most
warehouses:

• Temporarily store goods . To achieve economies of scale in production,
transportation, and handling of goods, it is often necessary to store goods
in warehouses and release them to customers as and when the demand
occurs.
• Put together customer orders . Goods are received from order picking stock
in the required quantities and at the required time to the warehouse to meet
customer orders. For example, goods can be received from suppliers as
whole pallet quantities, but are ordered by customers in less than pallet
quantities.
• Serve as a customer service facility . In some cases, warehouses ship goods
to customers and therefore are in direct contact with them. So, a ware-
house can serve as a customer service facility and handle replacement
of damaged or faulty goods, conduct market surveys, and even provide
after sales service. For example, many Korean electronic goods manufac-
turers let warehouses handle repair and do after sales service in North
America.
• Protect goods . Sometimes manufactured goods are stored in warehouses
to protect them against theft, fire, floods, and weather elements because
warehouses are generally secure and well equipped.
• Segregate hazardous or contaminated materials . Safety codes may not
allow storage of hazardous materials near the manufacturing plant. Because
no manufacturing takes place in a warehouse, this may be an ideal place
to segregate and store hazardous and contaminated materials.
• Perform value-added services . In many warehouses after picking, goods
are brought together and consolidated as completed orders ready to be
dispatched to customers. This can involve packing into dispatch outer
cases and cartons, and stretch- and shrink- wrapping for load protec-
tion and stability, inspecting, and testing. Here, inspection and testing do
not add value to the product. However, we have included them because
they may be a necessary function because of company policy or federal
regulations.

Store seasonal inventory . It is always difficult to forecast product demand
accurately in many businesses. Therefore, it may be important to carry
inventory and safety stocks to meet unexpected surges in demand. Some
companies that produce seasonal products — for example, lawn mowers
and snow throwers — may have excess inventory left over at the end of the
season and have to store the unsold items in a warehouse.

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