Aggregate warehousing: the next frontier
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 3/1/2000
There's no doubt that converging technologies have shifted distribution strategies. Like the evolution of information from chisel in stone to smoke signals to the telephone to the Internet, so is the evolution of distribution: trade routes, the general store, department stores, malls, and the next step: the aggregate warehouse.Visibility, velocity, and flexibility will lead to accountability and control of warehousing operations, which in turn will eventually and inevitably lead to aggregate warehousing, according to Rick Rock of HK Systems.
The density of demand has driven retail change, and this trend will continue, says Rock, until aggregated warehousing is the norm.
Rock predicted supply chain management trends at a recent Materials Handling Management Society (MHMS) presentation here in Boston, Mass. These trends include fewer larger, more efficient DCs; a hub-branches structure; integrating electronic data interchange (EDI); standards for bar coding and shipping labels; decision support systems; and the combination of mechanization and radio frequency (RF) online.
In addition, Rock cited trends he believes we'll see going into 2000, including micromarkets-that is, customization of inventories; more frequent, smaller, faster shipments; more value-added operations at the DC, which will increase compliance complexity; dropping technology price/performance ratios; and expanding use of the Internet.
It's the combination of these trends that will develop the aggregated warehousing element.
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