The warehouse continues to play a major role within supply chains and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The growth in fulfilment centres for e-commerce, for example, is certainly changing the warehousing landscape. Finished stock needs to be held as close to the point of consumption as possible to reduce ever-increasing transportation costs and to meet increasingly demanding customer delivery requirements. This has led to many warehouses transforming into cross-dock and transhipment centres, fulfilment centres, sortation and consolidation points, reverse logistics centres as well as fulfilling their roles as storage facilities.

This course's core concept is to discuss the warehouse processes together with putting the role of the warehouse into context within the overall supply chain. At the same time, it will demonstrate how to manage your warehouse's costs and discuss a variety of performance metrics and models.

The course focuses on the areas that challenge today’s warehousing and logistics managers. These include:

• improving efficiency and productivity whilst reducing costs;

• improving quality and accuracy;

• reduced lead times from customers;

• technological advancements;

• workforce availability and management; and

• health and safety.

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This course has been created in such a way that I hope it will be a useful reference point for all the staff involved in the day-to-day operations of a warehouse; senior managers who require a basic understanding of warehouses; designers and planners; external agencies needing a basic understanding; and, finally, those who are considering a career in warehousing and logistics.