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it will flow directly to all retail counters. When the next design gets manufactured it will similarly
flow. The choice of various designs at the retail that we exercise won’t be available. What gets
manufactured in near past is what is available. Same will be with clothes. Apples won’t be available
throughout the year. The choice of various models of mobile will vanish. In short, the life and
world will be so much duller and unexciting without the existence of an entity called warehouse.
Warehouse have been in existence since time immemorial. “They should collect the food of these
good years that are coming and store up the grain… This food should be held in reserve for the
country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come.” Genesis 41:35-36.
In the traditional definition, warehousing is the storage of goods until they are needed. A warehouse
is basically an area where all kinds of materials needed for production, distribution, maintenance,
packaging are received, stored and issued.
It is “a planned space for the efficient storage and handling of goods and materials” that will be
sold or distributed later. While a small, home-based business might be warehousing products in a
spare room, basement, or garage; larger businesses typically own or rent space in a building that is
specifically designed for storage.
The time gap between production and the actual consumption creates the need for the warehouse.
Warehouse stores and holds the goods till they are sold to the final customers. Warehouse enables
the manufacuring to continue the production in anticipation of the future demand. By bridging the
gap between the production and consumption, warehouse creates a time utility. Warehouses always
business to carry production throughput the year and sell as and when the demand arises. There
are certain goods which are produced only in a particular season, like wheat or rice but consumed
throughout the year. There could be others which are produced throughout the year but consumed
only during a particular season like AC, Cold drinks, Heaters etc.
According to logistics bureau warehouse is “a planned space for the efficient storage and handling
of goods and materials”.
Definition of warehouse:
Warehouse is a commercial building used by business entities like manufacturers,
traders, importers and exporters to store goods which can be finished goods, raw
materials, packaging material and spare parts till they are reshipped for sale or
consumption.
Warehousing refers to the process of holding and conservation of goods till they are dispatched.
Robert Hughes has defined it in following words, "Warehousing is a set of activities that are
involved in receiving and storing of goods and preparing them for reshipment."
1.2 Evolution of Warehousing
Early Days
Storage has played a critical role throughout the human history including the early days. During
the hunting and gathering phase, keeping extra food safe was really important managing the
unpredictability of nature. Unfruitful forage or poor harvest could mean the difference between life
and death. The earliest examples of storage facilities were storage pits designed to protect surplus
food and seeds. An Iron Age storage pit, which is about 800-700 BC, can be seen in Israel.
It’s interesting to find that storage facilities were developed long before the advent of domesticated
crops or animals. Storing foods may have been a necessary precursor to domestication. However,
more complex, purpose-built granaries date back as far as 9500 BC in the Jordan Valley, coinciding
with the dawn of agriculture.
All Roads Lead to Rome
As with so many things, the road to the modern warehouse was paved by the Romans. Storage
innovations were a necessary result of their enormous population and the ballooning requirements
of commerce. According to Robert I. Curtis, by the second century AD, ‘The supply of just grain,
wine and olive oil exceeded 400,000 metric tons, including over 100 million litres of wine, brought
annually to Rome in over 1,692 ships.’
Rome was described as ‘the earth’s warehouse’. To store such an immense bulk of produce, the
city possessed close to 300 warehouses of various sizes. Romans built large warehouses, or horrea,
found in port cities that best resemble the buildings of today.
Horrea were rectangular buildings, often two or more storeys high, built of stone with a raised
ground floor and overhanging roof to keep the walls cool and dry. They could also be truly massive,
even by modern standards. The Horrea Galbae complex contained 140 rooms on the ground floor
alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet. Yet it isn’t simply scale that makes horrea so
familiar; they were also pragmatically designed and meticulously managed. Thick walls and spaces
between adjoining warehouses blocked the spread of fire, while elaborate lock systems and high,
narrow windows discouraged theft. Some buildings even featured access ramps and mezzanine
floors.
Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, the building of traditional horrea was abandoned, though existing