By ware house we simply mean to say a large building with storage of goods where they can be used for several purposes such as shipping or received depending upon their type. Moreover sometimes some business firms need to store a huge stock of goods due to high demand of customers and for the purpose of preserving a huge stock of goods warehouse is used. The purpose of ware house is usually to store fine stock of goods and it can be said as a building for storing goods. The basic function of warehouse is to store the inventories in a safe and orderly condition till the time of export shipment. And a warehouse ensures protection against delays and uncertainties in transportation arising from a variety of factors and providing adjustment between the time of production and the time of use because production and use can be seldom synchronized.
Warehouse has been existed for several centuries and the word itself makes its meaning clear to us which means storing your wares. Warehouses are also used for consolidation of cargoes originating from different places but heading for the same destination. However people are very important assets of ware house operations and human resources can be the strongest and the weakest link to warehouse performance. As even in modern and highly system controlled designs of warehouse the operations of warehouse are run and managed by the people and are heavily dependent upon people. However depending upon different functions and facilities ware house can be divided into four main parts:
- Commodity warehouse
- Bulk storage warehouse
- Temperature controlled warehouses
- General merchandise warehouses
A ware houses facilitates the easy availability of goods at the point of consumption and in international business the location of warehouse is very critical and it should be located very strategically in order to meet his various objectives.
Warehouses are used by large exporters and manufactures as distribution points which help them to develop retail outlets in a particular region or country.