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Warehouse plays a significant role in the global supply chain, most of the time it is assumed that all warehouses are similar with a purpose is storage. Often it is not the case, all warehouses are not the same. Let us understand the different types of warehouses and their purpose.

Manufacturer warehouses for raw material or finished products are generally less complex, with the purpose to provide internal storage either at the manufacturing plant or at the point of distribution. These are self-managed and dedicated to a company. Here items are maintained either in stock able or shippable forms like boxes, and pallets. This may vary on the type of item it may be medicines, FMCG products, or even cement or steel.

Distribution warehouses are managed by distributors who handle the stock of multiple parties with the objective provide storage space and provide valuable services like local transportation, delivery on demand to third parties, repacking, and labeling service. Here items may be stored as single units or in packing units. With the advent of e-commerce, dropship or optimized pick and pack operations with robotic operations increase the throughputs of the shipments. Investment in technology is very critical for faster, efficient, accurate operations at every level. The focus is more on value-based services not just on storage services.

If we step back to another type of warehouse near to port area for bulk storage of imported cargo or cargo to be exported. These are the intermittent storage areas for export or import cargo. The purpose of these warehouses is to provide storage facilities in bulk form, mostly in pallets. From the customer’s point of view, these are classified as bonded and unbonded warehouses. The bonded warehouse where all customs duty unpaid cargo is stored under the supervision of the customs department. Cargo will be moved out for delivery or moved to an unbonded warehouse upon customs duty payment. All export cargo is stored in an unbonded warehouse before getting stuffed into a container. The objective is the provide storage as a service. This warehouse needs lesser technology investment. A good warehouse management solution with mobile handheld operations is good enough to start.

Open yards in port or terminal, covered sheds or storage wares, liquid tanks, and grain silos are also considered to be a warehouse of a single product.

Still, wondering what is the world’s smallest warehouse moves around?

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This can be a Marine container, a delivery truck, or even the bag of an e-commerce delivery person.

Envision provided warehouse management solutions for any type, size, and purpose with deeper functionality with seamless integrations with other applications. Our last-mile delivery solution will help you to optimize the delivery routes and timings.

Some of the key functional features of Envision’s warehouse management solutions are: 

·       Tariffs, Rate contracts.

·       Gate appointments for receipts and delivery.

·       Receipts, inspection, inventory update.

·       Space, shelf, yard optimization.

·       Pick, Pack, Put away, shipment, delivery.

·       Transportation, last-mile delivery.

·       Stocktaking, audit.

·       Labelling, re-packing services.

·       Invoice, billing, receivable management.

·       Mobile applications and seamless integration with external applications.

Looking for a solution to optimize your warehouse operations?

Let us talk.

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