What is Putaway?
Putaway involves transporting and storing goods in the most appropriate area in the warehouse after receiving them. This makes sure that products are stored at appropriate places based on their storage condition requirements.
Significance of Putaway In E-Commerce Logistics
Putaway plays an essential role in e-commerce logistics as it helps in the management of warehousing. Some of the primary advantages of the putaway process are mentioned below:
- Easy access to products: The putaway process keeps inventory organized, due to which every product is easy to access. Furthermore, knowing every product’s location makes it almost impossible to misplace goods.
- Better space management: With an efficient and organized putaway system, companies can manage their warehouse spaces better. This is particularly beneficial for sellers with limited storage spaces and warehouse areas.
- Improved picking process: If you keep track of exactly where each product is placed, this could speed up the picking process when you are preparing an order since you are aware of its location.
Prerequisites for Putaway and How It Works
Some major prerequisites to introduce putaway in your business includes:
- Efficient storage of merchandise
- Excellent executive team
- AI warehouse management system
- Travel time management
Once these conditions are fulfilled, the company can efficiently execute the putaway process. Broadly, there are three types of putaway processes, which are:
- Direct putaway: The goods that are unloaded are directly sent to an assigned space in a warehouse or storage. Usually, software tools are used to group products based on whether they sell together, their price, and so on.
- Dynamic putaway: In dynamic putaway, there are no fixed locations for any goods. The storage location of each newly received product is decided at the moment, depending on the product’s dimensions and other specifications.
- Fixed-location putaway: Specific products always get assigned a fixed location. For instance, food items prone to degradation would mandatorily be stored in temperature-controlled storage.
Use Case With Putaway
Suppose a company needs a lot of different items from different suppliers. They order the items and receive them at the warehouse dock. Subsequently, the company uses warehouse management software tools to segregate the items based on their price. After this, the warehouse workers use a putaway process to place the items in the designated areas for better efficiency in managing space and during picking and packing.