Having briefly looked into the subject of warehousing, we may study
now the types of warehouses. Popularly
known are five types of warehouses: Private Warehouse, Public Warehouse,
Automated Warehouse, Climate Controlled Warehouse and Bonded Warehouse.
In our earlier
discussion, we also saw that there are centralized and decentralized
warehouses; we shall discuss them too.As the name
itself suggests, it is privately owned and operated by a trader or a
manufacturer to store their own goods only exclusively.
For business
convenience which is essential for an efficient performance, the wholesaler
constructs the warehouse near the business centre and the manufacturer near his
factory. Movements of goods should be performed with ease and efficiency.
Generally big manufacturers tend to own private warehouses.In effect, a private warehouse becomes a very important part of the
distribution process.
The nature of the product decides the design and the other additional
facilities of the warehouse.
Owning a private warehouse is not possible for small companies and
manufacturers since the cost of construction of a large private warehouse is
too massive to attract them; it is
therefore not viable for them. For the
very same reason, we find the private warehouses are not in great number.
There are some advantages of a private warehouse. The design being
specific to the product of the manufacturer who builds the warehouse, space is
utilized maximum and there is better control over the functioning of the
warehouse since the employees know the product.  Warehousing has risen to such great height of strategic importance for
a business or a trade that big warehousing companies have come into existence
and registering exemplary service to business community. Mahindra Associates is one such warehousing
company with decades of experience.
Public Warehouse
Unlike a private warehouse which stores
the products of the owner or the manufacturer of the product only, a public
warehouse is open to different businesses and the inventory of those businesses
can be stored in the public warehouse.
Most small businesses cannot afford to
own a warehouse though they cannot dispense with the necessity of a warehouse
to store their products and public warehouses come to their rescue. In other
words, a public warehouse is also a business that helps small businesses with
space to store their products as well as inventory management. Small companies
can access storage in public warehouses for short or long-term basis or even
month-to-month basis. |