Top class warehousing is an essential competence in any successful business in the 21st century for three main reasons.
1. Warehousing impacts business top-line performance. The warehouse is the last step before the customer and your last chance to gets things right in the customer’s eyes.

2. Warehousing impacts business bottom-line results. Warehousing is labour and energy intensive and the difference in operating performance between well run warehouses and poorly run warehouses is dramatic.

3. Warehousing impacts working capital requirements. Effective warehousing supports optimum inventory levels to support the real requirements of the business. Ineffective warehousing results in higher levels of inventory and obsolescence.

Of course, not all warehouse operations have the same priorities or focus. These will be driven primarily by the type of business – Manufacturing, Distribution or Logistics Services.
The top three priorities for warehousing that supports manufacturing operations are compliance, control and quality. On the other hand, for distribution businesses the top three priorities will include efficiency, speed and accuracy whereas logistics services businesses will prioritise service, flexibility and communication capabilities in their warehousing operations.
Different priorities will drive different warehouse layouts, equipment, ways of working and performance metrics. Whatever your business sector, make no mistake about this, top class warehousing is a competitive differentiator in today’s business world and will make a dramatic contribution to your business results.
Make sure that you have got your priorities right for your warehousing operations.