Warehouse management is the strategic day-to-day running of operations in a warehouse to promote, improve, and ensure operational excellence. Managing a warehouse means overseeing all staff, training, inventory, equipment, safety and security, relationships with shipping carriers, and other moving pieces.

Responsibilities include:

• Forecasting and managing projected volume and labor
• Ensuring the proper safety gear is used and best safety practices are followed at all times
• Obtaining the proper licenses and certifications for anyone operating equipment
• Maintaining compliance and requirements for regulatory agencies
• Continuously planning and managing operations as the business grows and becomes more complex
• Keeping goods secure and accessible and performing warehouse audits as needed
• Providing clear instructions on how to receive, unpack, retrieve, pack, and ship inventory
• Setting up bins and other storage spots in optimal places to minimize the effort required to move between destinations
• Recording all inbound and outbound shipments and collecting the proper documentation

5 essential warehouse management processes

Warehouse management is one facet of supply chain management. It affects retail order fulfillment, storage, inventory management, shipping, and distribution. Having an all-in-one solution lets you see what’s happening across different functions of the warehouse in real-time such as inventory being received, orders being packed, shipments being labeled, and any other movement of goods.

1. Inventory Tracking
Inventory tracking is monitoring stock levels so you know which SKUs you have in your warehouse and the exact locations in which you store them, or if they are in transit from a manufacturer or en route to a store.

Inventory management lets you know how much product is ready to be shipped if a customer ordered an item now, as well as when you should order more based on projected volume.

As you grow, you will likely turn inventory over quicker, expand into new locations, and increase your product lines. This makes inventory accuracy and tracking all the more important.

2. Picking and Packing
Picking and packing are two core functions performed in a warehouse. A warehouse management system should generate pick lists for each picker to retrieve items in the most efficient way. This may include zone picking, wave picking, or batch picking.

For each new order, the picker will receive a packing slip of the items ordered and storage locations at the warehouse. The picker will collect the ordered products from their respective locations.

Once an order is picked, it is handed off to a packer, who is responsible for securely placing the items in a box or poly mailer, adding in any needed packing materials, and putting a shipping label on it.

3. Receiving and Stowing
Any warehousing operation must be able to receive inventory or freight from trucks at loading docks and then stow them away in a storage location. A warehouse management system will need to be able to scan in each new box received with the inventory quantities it has.

Then, it will be brought to its short-term or long-term inventory storage location, where it will be scanned again. Warehouse management software should provide clear instructions for each user so they know how to receive, unpack, retrieve, pick, pack, and ship inventory.

4. Shipping
Based on the delivery options and shipping services you offer to customers, shipping carriers like DHL, USPS, FedEx, and UPS will pick up orders from the warehouse to ship packages to their next destination.

Once the order ships, your warehouse management system should be able to automatically send ecommerce order tracking information back to your store so your customers can track their shipments.

5. Reporting
A warehouse management system should provide out-of-the-box operational and inventory reports across the warehouse. This may include accuracy in fulfilling orders (total mis-picks, mis-packs, etc.), total orders fulfilled by the hour to measure efficiency of staff, orders shipped on time, and much more.

There are also reports relating to people’s operations including inventory forecasting to understand labor management and staffing needs. With a warehouse management tracking system you can quickly find out which employees have completed safety training, and those who have licenses and certifications to operate certain equipment, and other regulatory requirements you must meet to operate a safe warehouse.