WAREHOUSE SYSTEMS AND TRANSPORTATION

Formative Referencing Exercise

Warehousing
“Warehousing refers to any operation that stores, repackages, stages, sorts, or centralizes goods or
materials” Bozarth and Handfield (2019, p.248). Major functions of warehouse include “receiving,
storage, picking, consolidation, and shipping” Hamberg and Verriet (2011, p.4).

Traditionally warehouses were just facilities used to store materials, limited visibility of stocks and
information flow within the supply chain resulted in high inventory costs directly affecting the
performance of entire supply chain. Hence a highly productive warehousing operations strategy is
required to reduce cost and improve customer experience.

Distribution
“Without distribution, manufacturing would be purposeless. A distribution task comprises three
highly dynamic elements: when, where, and how much is to be distributed” according to Liu, John J
(2011, p.271)

A successful distribution system is determined by its ability to handle supply chain demand by
delivering the right product to the right place at the right time in excellent condition, and at an
acceptable cost G Richards (2017). Use of right technologies including adequate automation and
logistics can help achieve the desired objectives in the distribution system.

Warehousing vs Distribution
Warehousing operations supports the supply chain functions to efficiently manage the receipt, safe
storage and delivery of goods from the warehouse, however without the availability of proper
distribution system the warehousing operations cannot be successful. An effective distribution system
driven by technology and resources like logistics and manpower is required to meet business demand.

Automation
Automation is defined as the intelligent management of a system or process using appropriate
technology with the purpose that the operation can occur without direct human involvement Hamberg
and Verriet (2011).
Automation is adopted in places where the operations are repetitive in nature and also have high
market demand. Automation with the help of relevant technology helps to achieve higher production
capacity with accuracy & high speeds without involvement of manpower.

Autonomation
Autonomation otherwise called as Jidoka is considered to be invented by Toyota’s founder Taiichi
Ohno. Automation with a degree of human intervention is called Autonomation according to
Hamberg and Verriet (2011), here the process is not fully dependent on automation but allows a
certain degree of manual intervention to detect and fix errors during the process.

In case of any abnormality the machine stops and the operator takes over control to detect the
abnormality, fix the error, identify the root cause and take necessary corrective action. Autonomation
also enables waste reduction, saves time and improve efficiency. It will relieve humans of time-
consuming and labour-intensive tasks, reduce misuse, speed up operations Hamberg and Verriet
(2011).

Automation vs Autonomation
The major difference between automation and autonomation is the presence of human supervisory
component in autonomation. The number of defects in a fully automated operations can cause huge
loss to operations before it is identified and corrected, but autonomation process helps to get over this
problem. With the addition of operator in the process, one can achieve the results of automation
giving room to fix errors during the process and ensure high productivity & savings.

References:
Bozarth, C. B., & Handfield, R. B. (2019). Introduction to operations and supply chain management,
global edition.

Hamberg, R., & Verriet, J. (Eds.). (2011). Automation in warehouse development.

Liu, J. J. (2011). Supply chain management and transport logistics.

Richards, Gwynne. (2014). Warehousing management : a complete guide to improving efficiency and
minimizing costs in the modern warehouse