A warehouse is a building for storing goods.

[1][2] Warehouses are used by manufacturers,

importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large
plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, towns or villages.

They usually have loading docks to load and unload goods from trucks. Sometimes
warehouses are designed for the loading and unloading of goods directly from railways,
airports, or seaports. They often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are
usually placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks. Stored goods can include any
raw materials, packing materials, spare parts, components, or finished goods associated with
agriculture, manufacturing, and production. In India, a warehouse may be referred to as a
godown.[3]

Contents
 1 History
 2 Typology
o 2.1 Retail warehouses
o 2.2 Cool warehouses and cold storage
o 2.3 Overseas warehouses
o 2.4 Packing warehouses
o 2.5 Railway warehouses
o 2.6 Canal warehouses
 3 Operations
o 3.1 Storage and shipping systems
o 3.2 Automation and optimization
 4 Recent trends
 5 Education
 6 See also
 7 References
 8 Further reading
 9 External links

History
A warehouse can be defined functionally as a building in which to store bulk produce or
goods (wares) for commercial purposes. The built form of warehouse structures throughout
time depends on many contexts: materials, technologies, sites, and cultures.

In this sense, the warehouse postdates the need for communal or state-based mass storage of
surplus food. Prehistoric civilizations relied on family- or community-owned storage pits, or
‘palace’ storerooms, such as at Knossos, to protect surplus food. The archaeologist Colin
Renfrew argued that gathering and storing agricultural surpluses in Bronze Age Minoan
‘palaces’ was a critical ingredient in the formation of proto-state power.[4]

The need for warehouses developed in societies in which trade reached a critical mass
requiring storage at some point in the exchange process. This was highly evident in ancient
Rome, where the horreum (pl. horrea) became a standard building form.[5] The most studied
examples are in Ostia, the port city that served Rome. The Horrea Galbae, a warehouse
complex on the road towards Ostia, demonstrates that these buildings could be substantial,
even by modern standards. Galba’s horrea complex contained 140 rooms on the ground floor
alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet (21,000 m²). As a point of reference, less
than half of U.S. warehouses today are larger than 100,000 square feet (9290 m²).[6]

The need for a warehouse implies having quantities of goods too big to be stored in a
domestic storeroom. But as attested by legislation concerning the levy of duties, some
medieval merchants across Europe commonly kept goods in their large household
storerooms, often on the ground floor or cellars.[7] [8] An example is the Fondaco dei
Tedeschi, the substantial quarters of German traders in Venice, which combined a dwelling,
warehouse, market and quarters for travellers.[9]

From the middle ages on, dedicated warehouses were constructed around ports and other
commercial hubs to facilitate large-scale trade. The warehouses of the trading port Bryggen
in Bergen, Norway (now a World Heritage site), demonstrate characteristic European gabled
timber forms dating from the late middle ages, though what remains today was largely rebuilt
in the same traditional style following great fires in 1702 and 1955.

During the industrial revolution, the function of warehouses evolved and became more
specialised. Always a building of function, in the past few decades warehouses have adapted
to standardisation, mechanisation, technological innovation and changes in supply chain
methods.

The mass production of goods launched by the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th
centuries fuelled the development of larger and more specialised warehouses, usually located
close to transport hubs on canals, at railways and portside. Specialisation of tasks is
characteristic of the factory system, which developed in British textile mills and potteries in
the mid-late 1700s. Factory processes speeded up work and deskilled labour, bringing new
profits to capital investment.

Warehouses also fulfill a range of commercial functions besides simple storage, exemplified
by Manchester’s cotton warehouses and Australian wool stores: receiving, stockpiling and
despatching goods; displaying goods for commercial buyers; packing, checking and labelling
orders, and dispatching them.

The utilitarian architecture of warehouses responded fast to emerging technologies. Before

and into the nineteenth century, the basic European warehouse was built of load-bearing
masonry walls or heavy-framed timber with a suitable external cladding. Inside, heavy timber
posts supported timber beams and joists for the upper levels, rarely more than four to five
stories high.

A gabled roof was conventional, with a gate in the gable facing the street, rail lines or port for
a crane to hoist goods into the window-gates on each floor below. Convenient access for road
transport was built-in via very large doors on the ground floor. If not in a separate building,
office and display spaces were located on the ground or first floor.

Technological innovations of the early 19th century changed the shape of warehouses and the
work performed inside them: cast iron columns and later, moulded steel posts; saw-tooth
roofs; and steam power. All (except steel) were adopted quickly and were in common use by
the middle of the 19th century.

1. Strong, slender cast iron columns began to replace masonry piers or timber posts
to carry levels above the ground floor. As modern steel framing developed in the late
19th century, its strength and constructability enabled the first skyscrapers. Steel
girders replaced timber beams, increasing the span of internal bays in the warehouse.
2. The saw-tooth roof brought natural light to the top story of the warehouse. It
transformed the shape of the warehouse, from the traditional peaked hip or gable to an
essentially flat roof form that was often hidden behind a parapet. Warehouse buildings
now became strongly horizontal. Inside the top floor, the vertical glazed pane of each
saw-tooth enabled natural lighting over displayed goods, improving buyer inspection.
3. Hoists and cranes driven by steam power expanded the capacity of manual labour
to lift and move heavy goods.

Two more new power sources, hydraulics, and electricity, re-shaped warehouse design and
practice at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century.

1. Public hydraulic power networks were constructed in many large industrial cities
around the world in the 1870s-80s, exemplified by Manchester. They were highly
effective to power cranes and lifts, whose application in warehouses served taller
buildings and enabled new labour efficiencies.
2. Public electricity networks emerged in the 1890s. They were used at first mainly
for lighting and soon to electrify lifts, making possible taller, more efficient
warehouses. It took several decades for electrical power to be distributed widely
throughout cities in the western world.

20th-century technologies made warehousing ever more efficient. Electricity became widely
available and transformed lighting, security, lifting and transport from the 1900s. The internal
combustion engine, developed in the late 19th century, was installed in mass-produced
vehicles from the 1910s. It not only reshaped transport methods but enabled many
applications as a compact, portable power plant, wherever small engines were needed.

The forklift truck was invented in the early 20th century and came into wide use after World
War II. Forklifts transformed the possibilities of multi-level pallet racking of goods in taller,
single-level steel-framed buildings for higher storage density. The forklift, and its load fixed
to a uniform pallet, enabled the rise of logistic approaches to storage in the later 20th century.

19th-century warehouses in Gloucester docks in the United Kingdom, originally used

to store imported corn


A Sust, a Middle Ages type of warehouse, in Horgen, Switzerland

Historic Atlantic Dock warehouse in Brooklyn in the 1800s

Seventeenth-century warehouses in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ruined warehouses in Ostia; an ancient Roman city


 Aisle with pallets on storage racks

Typology

India House, Manchester.

Warehouses are generally considered industrial buildings[10] and are usually located in
industrial districts or zones (such as the outskirts of a city).[11] LoopNet categorizes
warehouses using the "industrial" property type.[12] Craftsman Book Company's 2018
National Building Cost Manual lists "Warehouses" under the "Industrial Structures
Section."[13] In the UK, warehouses are classified under the Town and Country Planning Act
1990 as the industrial category B8 Storage and distribution.[14][15]

Types of warehouses include storage warehouses, distribution centers (including fulfillment

centers and truck terminals), retail warehouses, cold storage warehouses, and flex space.[16][17]

Retail warehouses

Main article: Warehouse store

These displayed goods for the home trade. This would be finished goods- such as the latest
cotton blouses or fashion items. Their street frontage was impressive, so they took the styles
of Italianate Palazzi.

Richard Cobden's construction in Manchester's Mosley Street was the first palazzo
warehouse. There were already seven warehouses on Portland Street when they commenced
building the elaborate Watts Warehouse of 1855,[18][19] but four more were opened before it
was finished.

Cool warehouses and cold storage

Main article: Cool warehouse

Cold storage preserves agricultural products. Refrigerated storage helps in eliminating
sprouting, rotting and insect damage. Edible products are generally not stored for more than
one year. Several perishable products require a storage temperature as low as −25 °C.

Cold storage helps stabilize market prices and evenly distribute goods both on demand and
timely basis. The farmers get the opportunity of producing cash crops to get remunerative
prices. The consumers get the supply of perishable commodities with lower fluctuation of
prices.

Ammonia and Freon compressors are commonly used in cold storage warehouses to maintain
the temperature. Ammonia refrigerant is cheaper, easily available, and has a high latent heat
of evaporation, but it is also highly toxic and can form an explosive mixture when mixed with
fuel oil. Insulation is also important, to reduce the loss of cold and to keep different sections
of the warehouse at different temperatures.

There are two main types of refrigeration system used in cold storage warehouses: vapor
absorption systems (VAS) and vapor-compression systems (VCS). VAS, although
comparatively costlier to install, is more economical in operation.[citation needed]

The temperature necessary for preservation depends on the storage time required and the type
of product. In general, there are three groups of products, foods that are alive (e.g. fruits and
vegetables), foods that are no longer alive and have been processed in some form (e.g. meat
and fish products), and commodities that benefit from storage at controlled temperature (e.g.
beer, tobacco).

Location is important for the success of a cold storage facility. It should be in close proximity
to a growing area as well as a market,[citation needed] be easily accessible for heavy vehicles, and
have an uninterrupted power supply.

Overseas warehouses

These catered for the overseas trade. They became the meeting places for overseas wholesale
buyers where printed and plain could be discussed and ordered.[18] Trade in cloth in
Manchester was conducted by many nationalities.

Behrens Warehouse is on the corner of Oxford Street and Portland Street. It was built for
Louis Behrens & Son by P Nunn in 1860. It is a four-storey predominantly red brick build
with 23 bays along Portland Street and 9 along Oxford Street.[19] The Behrens family were
prominent in banking and in the social life of the German Community in Manchester.[20] [21]

Packing warehouses

The main purpose of packing warehouses was the picking, checking, labelling and packing of
goods for export.[18] The packing warehouses: Asia House, India House and Velvet House
along Whitworth Street in Manchester were some of the tallest buildings of their time.

Railway warehouses

Warehouses were built close to the major stations in railway hubs. The first railway
warehouse to be built was opposite the passenger platform at the terminus of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway. There was an important group of warehouses around London Road
station (now Piccadilly station).In the 1890s the Great Northern Railway Company’s
warehouse was completed on Deansgate: this was the last major railway warehouse to be
built.[18]

The London Warehouse Picadilly was one of four warehouses built by the Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in about 1865 to service the new London Road Station. It
had its own branch to the Ashton Canal. This warehouse was built of brick with stone
detailing. It had cast iron columns with wrought iron beams.[22]

Canal warehouses

Further information: Canal warehouse

All these warehouse types can trace their origins back to the canal warehouses which were
used for trans-shipment and storage. Castlefield warehouses are of this type- and important as
they were built at the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal in 1761.

Operations
A customised storage building—a warehouse—enables a business to stockpile goods, eg, to
build up a full load prior to transport, or hold unloaded goods before further distribution, or
store goods like wine and cheese that require maturation. As a place for storage, the
warehouse has to be secure, convenient, and as spacious as possible, according to the owner’s
resources, the site and contemporary building technology. Before mechanised technology
developed, warehouse functions relied on human labour, using mechanical lifting aids like
pulley systems.

Storage and shipping systems

Some of the most common warehouse storage systems are:

 Pallet racking including selective, drive-in, drive-thru, double-deep, pushback, and

gravity flow
 Cantilever racking uses arms, rather than pallets, to store long thin objects like timber.
 Mezzanine adds a semi-permanent story of storage within a warehouse[23]

 Vertical Lift Modules are packed systems with vertically arranged trays stored on
both sides of the unit.
 Horizontal Carousels consist of a frame and a rotating carriage of bins.
 Vertical Carousels consisting of a series of carriers mounted on a vertical closed-loop
track, inside a metal enclosure.

A "piece pick" is a type of order selection process where a product is picked and handled in
individual units and placed in an outer carton, tote or another container before shipping.
Catalog companies and internet retailers are examples of predominantly piece-pick
operations. Their customers rarely order in pallet or case quantities; instead, they typically
order just one or two pieces of one or two items. Several elements make up the piece-pick
system. They include the order, the picker, the pick module, the pick area, handling
equipment, the container, the pick method used and the information technology used.[24]
Every movement inside a warehouse must be accompanied by a work order. Warehouse
operation can fail when workers move goods without work orders, or when a storage position
is left unregistered in the system.

Material direction and tracking in a warehouse can be coordinated by a Warehouse

Management System (WMS), a database driven computer program. Logistics personnel use
the WMS to improve warehouse efficiency by directing pathways and to maintain accurate
inventory by recording warehouse transactions.

Automation and optimization

Main article: Warehouse robotics

Some warehouses are completely automated, and require only operators to work and handle
all the task. Pallets and product move on a system of automated conveyors, cranes and
automated storage and retrieval systems coordinated by programmable logic controllers and
computers running logistics automation software.[citation needed] These systems are often
installed in refrigerated warehouses where temperatures are kept very cold to keep the
product from spoiling. This is especially true in electronics warehouses that require specific
temperatures to avoid damaging parts. Automation is also common where land is expensive,
as automated storage systems can use vertical space efficiently. These high-bay storage areas
are often more than 10 meters (33 feet) high, with some over 20 meters (65 feet) high.
Automated storage systems can be built up to 40m high.

For a warehouse to function efficiently, the facility must be properly slotted. Slotting
addresses which storage medium a product is picked from (pallet rack or carton flow), and
how they are picked (pick-to-light, pick-to-voice, or pick-to-paper). With a proper slotting
plan, a warehouse can improve its inventory rotation requirements—such as first in, first out
(FIFO) and last in, first out (LIFO)—control labor costs and increase productivity.[25]

Pallet racks are commonly used to organize a warehouse. It is important to know the
dimensions of racking and the number of bays needed as well as the dimensions of the
product to be stored.[26] Clearance should be accounted for if using a forklift or pallet mover
to move inventory.

Recent trends
Modern warehouses commonly use a system of wide aisle pallet racking to store goods which
can be loaded and unloaded using forklift trucks.

Traditional warehousing has declined since the last decades of the 20th century, with the
gradual introduction of Just In Time techniques. The JIT system promotes product delivery
directly from suppliers to consumer without the use of warehouses. However, with the
gradual implementation of offshore outsourcing and offshoring in about the same time
period, the distance between the manufacturer and the retailer (or the parts manufacturer and
the industrial plant) grew considerably in many domains, necessitating at least one warehouse
per country or per region in any typical supply chain for a given range of products.
Recent retailing trends have led to the development of warehouse-style retail stores. These
high-ceiling buildings display retail goods on tall, heavy-duty industrial racks rather than
conventional retail shelving. Typically, items ready for sale are on the bottom of the racks,
and crated or palletized inventory is in the upper rack. Essentially, the same building serves
as both a warehouse and retail store.

Another trend relates to vendor-managed inventory (VMI). This gives the vendor the control
to maintain the level of stock in the store. This method has its own issue that the vendor gains
access to the warehouse.

Large exporters and manufacturers use warehouses as distribution points for developing retail
outlets in a particular region or country. This concept reduces end cost to the consumer and
enhances the production sale ratio.

Cross-docking is a specialised type of distribution center (DC) in that little or no inventory is

stored and product is received, processed (if needed) and shipped within a short timeframe.
As in warehousing, there are different types of cross-docks.

Reverse logistics is another type of warehousing that has become popular for environmental
reasons. The term refers to items that are going from the end user back to the distributor or
manufacturer.[citation needed]

Education
There are few non-profit organizations which are focused on imparting knowledge, education
and research in the field of warehouse management and its role in the supply chain industry.
The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC)[27] and International Warehouse
Logistics Association (IWLA)[28] in Illinois, United States. They provide professional
certification and continuing education programs for the industry in the country. The
Australian College of Training have government funded programs to provide personal
development and continuation training in warehousing certs II – V (Diploma), they operate in
Western Australia online and face to face, or Australia wide for online only courses.