There are no “beautiful” or “ugly” systems to set up a warehouse, but only suitable solutions. If the concept were so clear, 30.4% of the 50 companies in Parma, which participated in a thematic survey proposed by the Logistics Club of the Parma Union of Industrialists, would not have defined the operational organization of their own as “critical”.
The results of the survey were presented during a conference at Palazzo Soragna entitled “Organizing the warehouse: rules, experiences and solutions”, promoted by UPI.
“The analysis of the data made it appropriate to arrange a meeting to deepen the subject and suggest ways that can improve the existing. After all, the enhancement of logistics, in all its components, today is a historical necessity that allows us to recover margins in competitiveness”, underlines UPI director Cesare Azzali. To counteract regression we need to rethink the way of doing business, reorganizing, restructuring, sharing and learning to work together with other realities. So why not start right from the warehouse? Space that for 52.2% of respondents is “strategic”, or an important competitive lever of the company. Paolo Azzali, UPI consultant for logistics, reports that 43% of the survey participants have a warehouse still set up in a traditional-manual way (40% of these consider the organization “critical”), with shelving and forklifts for handling goods, while 30.4% use automatic and technological systems. “In addition, 65.2% also use specific software for management (Warehouse Management Systems), which for 80% of those who own it is satisfaction in performance”. Another information found is that 75% of those who do not use a WMS do not even intend to use it. To tell the truth, a contradictory aspect also emerges: 71.4% of those who consider the warehouse “critical” use specific software for management. This can mean two things: the WMS, despite the high level of satisfaction claimed, does not solve problems; More automated solutions are shelved too quickly.”
These are the hypotheses of Paolo Azzali who in general underlines the need for companies to pay greater attention in choosing the most appropriate systems. Design expert Stefano Bianchi, of Ab Coplan, also agrees. If once the warehouse had only the function of storage, now it is a strategic place. And above all: “There can be no standard warehouses, but they must absolutely adhere to the needs of each company.
