The Supply Chain-Centric Warehouse
Modern supply chain models are redefining the role of the warehouse. As pre-distribution models become commonplace and stockpiled inventory is eliminated, WMS (warehouse management systems) have had to keep pace with the supply chain. But to take full advantage of pre-distribution, retailers need to achieve supplier compliance.
In a pre-distributed model, product comes into the warehouse facility prearranged to the store's order, allowing the majority of inventory coming in to flow straight through to the store. Nigel Davies, director of product development at WMS software vendor Catalyst (Milwaukee), says some of his retail customers are seeing store shipments flow through the DC in less than 15 minutes. "We've seen three- to fourfold reductions in carton handling costs. The model expedites the flow, eliminating layers of re-picking and re-packing." Of course, this requires the earliest step in the supply chain — i.e. the supplier — to put a lot of effort into getting the load store-ready.