WAREHOUSING &

DISTRIBUTION CENTRE
OPERATIONS

UNIT - 3
WAREHOUSE ACTIVITIES

⦿ Receiving, sorting, loading, unloading, Picking

Packing and dispatch activities and their relevance in
a warehouse
⦿ Quality parameters
⦿ Quality check-need & importance of quality check
⦿ Procedure to develop Packing list
⦿ Dispatch note
⦿ Cross docking method
⦿ Situations suited for application of cross docking
⦿ Information required for coordinating cross docking
⦿ Importance of proper packing
⦿ Packing materials, Packing machines, Reading labels
WAREHOUSE ACTIVITIES

Receiving
Sorting
Loading
Unloading
Picking
Packing
Dispatch
⦿ Receiving:
⦿ The act of handling products into a warehouse and onto a system.
⦿ Sorting:
⦿ The act of arranging systematically in groups; separate according to
type.
⦿ Loading:
⦿ Placing goods on vehicle/ship/container, etc.
⦿ Unloading:
⦿ Removing goods from a vehicle/ship/container, etc.
⦿ Picking:
⦿ Detach and remove from where it is kept.
⦿ Packing:
⦿ The action to perform or pack goods. Sealing materials.
⦿ Dispatch:
⦿ Send off to a destination.
 WAREHOUSE ACTIVITIES
⦿ Receiving goods – receive and accept responsibility by updating
records
⦿ Identifying goods – place label, colour code (Normal stocks,
Promotional stocks, Special customer stocks, Price changed
batch etc).
⦿ Sorting goods- sort out the received goods based on
identification for appropriate storage area.
⦿ For example Special customer goods, revised price goods,
Promotional goods should be sorted out separately.
⦿ Dispatching put away the sorted goods to appropriate storage
place- for temporary storage with easy accessibility
 WAREHOUSE ACTIVITIES
⦿ Holding goods- security against pilferage and deterioration
⦿ Selecting, retrieving, packing - items are retrieved and grouped
according to customer order for dispatch
⦿ Marshalling goods- check the items of a single order for
completeness and order records are updated.
⦿ Dispatching goods- consolidated order is packaged and directed
to right transport
⦿ Preparing records and advices- of stocks and replenishment
requirements
 PACKING AND DISPATCH ACTIVITIES AND
THEIR RELEVANCE IN A WAREHOUSE
⦿ Packing processes, it’s suffice to follow five rules for
successful packing:
⦿ Goods picked must be traceable in terms of location from
which they are picked, plus relevant ‘use-by’ dates and/or
‘batch’ dates and codes.
⦿ Accuracy and QA checks must be built into the process.
⦿ Goods picking from different zones within the warehouse
must be easily ‘combined’ and system-managed to ensure
order completeness.
⦿ Goods must be packed according to their size, quantity,
temperature, toxicity, value, fragility, hygiene and legislative
requirements.
⦿ Consignments must always be system-traceable to
documents and/or invoice numbers for future traceability.
 PACKING AND DISPATCH ACTIVITIES AND
THEIR RELEVANCE IN A WAREHOUSE
⦿ The successful art of dispatch lies in the operation’s
ability to have goods ready for departure, just in time
for carriers to load their trucks.
⦿ The DC manager must therefore balance and forecast
packing and dispatching according to carrier pick-up
times. Goods that are ready too early, for example, will
clutter staging areas, while dispatches that are late, will
delay loading and potentially cause late deliveries.
⦿ As indicated earlier, many firms resort to using their
systems to release orders, for picking and packing in
waves, aligned to specific delivery routes or carrier
types.
QUALITY PARAMETERS

⦿ Quality control in the warehouse is important to

the success of an ecommerce business.

⦿ However, some warehouse managers feel quality

control slows operations.

⦿ Thus, it is rarely applied. Or in some cases, it is

only partially applied and is often discarded in the
hustle and bustle of the warehouse.
 QUALITY PARAMETERS

⦿ You can apply warehouse quality control

techniques during receiving, picking, and
packing. And creating quality control
checkpoints in each stage of the shipping
workflow can reduce fulfillment errors.
QUALITY PARAMETERS
The green areas in the image below signify stages where managers can
implement quality control measures. It is not uncommon to have more than
one quality control checkpoint.
 QUALITY CHECK‐NEED & IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITY CHECK
⦿ In a warehouse environment, quality control actually
refers to the quality of the orders you are shipping
out.

⦿ Since order fulfillment is your service, you need to

guarantee the quality of those orders before they go
out the door.

⦿ Fortunately, adding quality control can actually have

a positive impact on your warehouse efficiency.
 QUALITY CHECK‐NEED & IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITY CHECK

⦿ Stopping Defective Items at the Door

⦿ Improving Accuracy

⦿ Reducing Returns

⦿ Reduce the number of damaged items

 QUALITY CHECK-NEED &
IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY CHECK
⦿ Stopping Defective Items at the Door Whether it's a damaged item or an item that has been improperly packaged,
your quality control team is responsible for stopping these items before they reach the customer. In most cases,
unless the defect is very obvious, your picking team doesn't have time to stop and inspect the items they are
pulling. It's up to your QC team to identify red flags and make sure that customers don't receive those items. This
often means re-picking a particular item to fill the order if something needs to be thrown out. In reality, only a
small fraction of your orders will have defects, so your QC team should be able to work quickly and effectively
without disrupting workflow on the front-end.
⦿ Improving Accuracy
⦿ Naturally, your QC team will also be looking for accuracy of orders going out. If they notice a trend of wrong
items coming from a particular picker, they can address the source of the problem directly. Again, a small
number of orders should have inaccuracies, but catching them now will keep your customers happy day in and
day out.
⦿ Reducing Returns
⦿ As a benefit of your quality control systems, your warehouse will see significantly fewer returns coming in
through your doors. Whether they result from defective items or accuracy errors, it is the returns that are usually
most troublesome to your work flow. Processing returns can be a burden to warehouse efficiency because it
requires additional resources with no additional profit. Every time you take an item back into your warehouse,
you have to put it away again, while still sending money out the door to the customer, who may decide that this
negative experience was enough to drive them away for good. In this area alone, it's easy to see that the
opportunity cost of not having a quality control team is far greater than the cost of having one in place.
⦿ Adding even a small quality control effort can do wonders for your warehouse efficiency as a whole. It can
help reduce the number of damaged items in your warehouse and can isolate accuracy problems before they reach
 PROCEDURE TO DEVELOP PACKING
LIST
⦿ Touch items once
⦿ Rely on system verifications
⦿ Consider different storage strategies
⦿ Create a warehouse within a warehouse
 PROCEDURE TO DEVELOP PACKING LIST
⦿ Touch items once:
⦿ Focus on preventing errors during picking and you won’t need further repacking, or
shipping checking. Picked inventory should go on trucks touched only by pickers.
Also pick into shipping cartons instead of tote.
⦿ Rely on system verifications:
⦿ Design your standard operating procedures to double-verify almost every step in the
picking process. You can loosen this later as needed. For example, utilize area’s pick
verification flags to have user scan and verify LPN, quantity, item, etc. Count Back
or Count Near Zero can also be used to count remaining inventory in a location
in-line with picking.
⦿ Consider different storage strategies:
⦿ Different storage strategies can boost efficiency within a warehouse. For example,
slotting may improve storage intensity, reduce accidents or product damage, reduce
congestion and improve retrieval times. Review storage strategies on a regular basis
in order to align your practices with seasonal demand.
⦿ Create a warehouse within a warehouse:
⦿ You can gain tremendous efficiency by grouping together the 20 percent of your
SKUs that complete 80 percent of your orders. This cuts down on travel time for
your pickers. Be sure, however, that the 80/20 area or zone is properly designed to
 PROCEDURE TO DEVELOP PACKING
LIST
⦿ Consider different order picking methods:
⦿ • Zone picking:
⦿ Each order picker is assigned a specific zone and will only realize order
picking within this zone.
⦿ • Batch picking:
⦿ An order picker is assigned and picks multiple orders simultaneously,
minimizing trips to each location.
⦿ • Wave picking:
⦿ A variation of zone and batch picking. Rather than orders moving from
one zone to the next for picking, all zones are picked at the same time
and the items are later sorted and consolidated into individual
orders/shipments
 DISPATCH NOTE
⦿ The Delivery note or Dispatch
note is a document that is used to
escort the products shipment after
they are loaded. It is a document that
is compulsory in business practices
in most of the countries in Europe.
 DISPATCH NOTE
⦿ Delivery Note is a document, issued by the
suppliers, which accompanies a delivery of
goods, specifying their type and quantity of
the goods delivered.
⦿ A copy of the delivery note, signed by the
buyer or consignee, is returned to the seller
or consignor as a proof of delivery.
 WHAT IS A DELIVERY NOTE USED FOR?

⦿ A document accompanying a shipment of

goods that lists the description, and quantity
of the goods delivered.
⦿ A copy of the delivery note, signed by the
buyer or consignee, is returned to the seller
or consignor as a proof of delivery.
 CROSS DOCKING METHOD
⦿ Cross-docking is a practice in
logistics of unloading materials from
an incoming semi-trailer truck or
railroad car and loading these
materials directly into outbound
trucks, trailers, or rail cars, with little
CROSS DOCKING METHOD
CROSS DOCKING METHOD
CROSS DOCKING METHOD
 ADVANTAGES OF CROSS DOCKING
⦿ Cost savings, increased product quality and
reduced delivery times due
to cross-docking also factor in to help
increase customer service satisfaction. This
will help to retain current customers and
capture additional market share. The
utilization of cross-docking can help to
 SITUATIONS SUITED FOR APPLICATION OF
CROSS DOCKING
⦿ Cross-dock facilities are generally designed in an "I"
configuration, which is an elongated rectangle. The
goal in using this shape is to maximize the number of
inbound and outbound doors that can be added to the
facility while keeping the floor area inside the facility
to a minimum. Bartholdi and Gue (2004) demonstrated
that this shape is ideal for facilities with 150 doors or
less. For facilities with 150–200 doors, a "T" shape is
more cost effective. Finally, for facilities with 200 or
more doors, the cost-minimizing shape is an "X".[1]
⦿ Cross docking is a logistics procedure where products
from a supplier or manufacturing plant are distributed
directly to a customer or retail chain with marginal to
no handling or storage time. Cross docking takes place
 INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR
COORDINATING CROSS DOCKING
⦿ We are considering the issues in a pure cross-docking
pre-allocation scenario. We take the information such as what
cargo (container) should deliver to where in a particular day
(ERP, Order Mgt Sys) and also facility (size, shape) and
resources as input to the system. Our research focuses on the
following crossdocking operation issues:
⦿ When should a vehicle arrive in the cross-dock?
⦿ Which group of containers should enter the cross-dock with
time-overlapping?
⦿ What should be the sequence of exchanging?
⦿ Which dock should a container be allocated to?
⦿ How to handle dynamics on arriving, processing and facility
uncertainty?
IMPORTANCE OF PROPER PACKING
⦿ The right packaging material can reduce
transportation costs by keeping
the warehouse constantly moving. Products will be
able to move seamlessly from the warehouse to
transport and then to the end user. A steady flow of
goods due to quality packaging can result in
increased productivity.
⦿ What is the importance of packaging materials?

⦿ The purpose of product packaging is to protect the

product from damage.

⦿ Product packaging not only protects the product

during transit from the manufacturer to the retailer,
but it also prevents damage while the product sits
on retail shelves. Most products have some form
of packaging.
⦿ What is the importance of packaging
materials?
⦿ Damaged goods upset clients, and gives the
company a poor name.
⦿ A good logistics packaging keeps products
safe, and ensure that your product arrives at
their address in the perfect form and free from
any damage.
⦿ A distributor requires a lot of information
about the product
⦿ What is the importance of packaging
materials?

⦿ The purpose of product packaging is to

protect the product from damage.
Product packaging not only protects the
product during transit from the manufacturer
to the retailer, but it also prevents damage
while the product sits on retail shelves. Most
products have some form of packaging
 PACKING MATERIALS

⦿ Packaging materials are used to enclose or hold

together the packaged goods. You can pack the
packaged goods into or onto the packaging
material. The packaging material can be a load
carrier. The most important packaging
materials are, for example, crates, boxes,
containers, wire baskets, and pallets.
PACKING MATERIALS
PACKING MATERIALS
PACKING MATERIALS
PACKING MACHINES
The warehouse
packaging involves packaging of bulk
weight cartons in which varied types
of products can be packed.
7 Packaging Machines Used Throughout the World
1. Labeling Machines - Labeling and coding machines are
used for industrial, retail, food, and pharmaceutical packaging
applications.
2.Tape Machines - Carton sealers are used in most packaging
applications utilizing corrugated boxes.
3. Conveyors.
4. Filling Machines.
5. Sealers.
6. Strapping/Bundling Machines.
7. Stretch Wrapping Machines.
PACKING MACHINES
PACKING MACHINES
PACKING MACHINES
PACKING MACHINES
PACKING MACHINES
PACKING MACHINES
PACKING MACHINES
READING LABELS
⦿ The most common type of warehouse label is a
rack label, which is used to streamline workflow
by making items and sections easier to identify for
employees. They help identify the right products
for inventory management, storing, and shipping
purposes.
⦿ Quick Tips for Labeling Your Warehouse
⦿ Properly organizing your warehouse depends heavily on the labels you
choose, but how you label your warehouse is equally as important. See
the following list for some helpful tips to make sure your warehouse
racks, cartons, floors, and hazardous areas are properly labeled so that
you and your employees can work more efficiently and safely:

⦿ Make sure your labels are durable and secured in place.

⦿ The writing or barcodes on labels should be large enough to see from a
reasonable distance and should be in a font that is easy to read.
⦿ Choosing colors like black on yellow or white on red are great options for
making sure the labels are easily identified from other unrelated labels in
the warehouse. You can also use different color schemes for easy
identification of the purpose of each label type.
⦿ Labels should be easy to change or create using an office printer or label
maker in case of damage or changed information.
⦿ They should be placed in a position that would keep normal warehouse
activity from easily ripping or damaging them.
⦿ Using arrows is helpful for identifying exactly what rack or carton the
label is referring to.
READING LABELS
READING LABELS
READING LABELS
READING LABELS
READING LABELS