Warehouses becoming smaller

Not too many years ago, large organizations started building large monstrous warehouses to consolidate their distribution facilities. The one change this ongoing downturn has brought is that this trend is seeing a complete reverse. Yes, lower cost is a factor in this downsizing trend, but it’s also being driven by customer demand for shortened delivery times. Smaller, regional and even local warehouses, are gearing up to handle customers’ insatiable demand for fast delivery. So the question you might ask is: How can these smaller facilities compete with the economies of scale enjoyed by larger warehouses? The answer is technology in the form of Warehouse Management Systems.
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It is not that only large warehouses need the warehouse management systems. Infact, the trend of having smaller and multiple warehouses near the customer location has started a new earning opportunity for families as a large chunk of organizations prefer to rent warehouses rather than maintaining their own. This a win-all situation where the org and the warehouse entity, both reap benefits. The other positives of smaller family owned warehouses are that they’re often able to move faster on technology changes and upgrades, especially when the ROI is often realized within months instead of years. The negatives can be that they may be under capitalized, pay-as-you-go enterprises which might hamper the strategy of the organizations.
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This new breed of warehouses in United States and whole of Europe, are very fast in implementing state of art warehouse management systems that offers an added advantage to their clients in terms of organized, integrated and transparent system that allows them to plan their inventory as well as organize their shipping.