The Most Common Types of Warehouse a Company Can Have

Depending on the size of a company and the number of organisational units it may have, there can be one warehouse or several, and each warehouse can have several locations determined by the kind of goods held there. Different items are stored within a warehouse, or within its locations where these exist. A company can have various types of warehouse, and below you can see which types are most commonly used and what each is for:

• Central warehouse
  • A central warehouse can be the place where all products are initially stored, whether they are bought in or manufactured. From here they are often distributed onward to other warehouses. A central warehouse can be divided into different locations, in which case those locations can act as warehouses in their own right. A central warehouse might contain a wholesale location, a production location and so on.
• Tool store
  • This warehouse normally holds the tools and machinery needed for production, and for other purposes too: welding sets, drill bits, drills and the various machines used in manufacturing.
• Raw material warehouse
  • A raw material warehouse normally holds the raw materials needed for production. These might be different kinds of fabric in textile manufacturing, for example, or different kinds of sheet metal in engineering.
• Service warehouse
  • A service warehouse can hold all the items needed to carry out servicing, as well as products from which particular parts can be taken for a repair.
• Inspection body warehouse
  • An inspection body warehouse holds the items needed to carry out inspections
• Bonded warehouse
  • A bonded warehouse is used by companies that want to bring goods in from abroad to their own premises without clearing them through customs. The reason is cost. If goods are imported, customs duty and import VAT have to be paid; if they are sold abroad without being cleared (we also say the goods are re-exported), those costs do not arise. A bonded warehouse is under the control of customs inspectors and authorities.

Records of goods for resale are kept in:

• Retail outlet warehouse
  • A retail outlet warehouse is one where stock is valued at retail prices. It is normally tied to a single retail outlet and represents that outlet's warehouse.
• Wholesale warehouse
  • A wholesale warehouse is one where stock is valued at purchase prices. Stock can also be valued at selling prices, meaning items can be sold at wholesale prices.
• Maintenance warehouse
  • A maintenance warehouse holds the items and materials needed for maintenance

In TiramisuERP you can open an unlimited number of warehouses, and define different locations within each one where that is useful. There are numerous parameters that can be set for each warehouse, among them:

• Warehouse name
• Warehouse code
• Warehouse category (wholesale, retail, consumables and so on)
• Warehouse type (central, regional and so on)
• How stock is valued (selling price, weighted average cost, FIFO, LIFO and so on)
• Town
• Address
• Warehouse manager
• Default price