Whether they are happy about it or not, it is becoming more and more

common for purchasing professionals to be made responsible for

management of the warehouse. Therefore, do not be surprised if
warehouse management is added to your list of responsibilities in the
near future.

To prepare for this trend, let’s explore the similarities between

purchasing and warehouse management.

Purchasing professionals love to use metrics. And metrics are helpful in

improving warehouse performance, too. Art Avery, the Principal Consultant for
warehouse layout consulting firm Avery and Associates, suggests starting with
these metrics:
 Pick lines per hour

 Orders processed per hour

 Age of oldest unshipped order

Like Purchasing, warehouse management has many best practices.

A couple best practices Avery recommends are using effective
slotting tools and bar coding.

Effective slotting tools include the placement of high-volume items

close to the point of shipping, use of clear slotting information under
each item on the shelf, using the same slotting information on pick
documents, and sorting the slot numbers into a sequence that
supports a “no-backtrack” path for the picker.

Bar codes can help ensure that the right incoming product is put in
the right place and that the right outgoing product is picked in the
right quantities. Avery notes that “by using bar code picking, not only
can you pick faster, but you can also pick with virtually 100%
accuracy.” In his experience, Avery has seen bar code
implementations pay for themselves within six months, which leads
me to the most attractive aspect of warehouse management for
purchasing professionals: the opportunity for cost savings.

Avery shares that fixing an inefficient warehouse operation can

produce labor cost savings of 30 to 50%. So even if you’ve never
dreamed of being the purchasing and warehouse manager, such an
expanded role may help you deliver more measurable bottom line
results.