The six key warehouse types – which one is best for your company?

Procurement or production warehouses serve as a buffer. Unlike intermediate or buffer storage, however, they are not situated within the production process, but are ahead of production in terms of time. They are located close to the production site.

• The procurement or production warehouse stores raw materials, materials, semi-finished goods and preliminary products that will be processed later in production.
• As soon as the goods are needed in the production process, they can be instantly delivered to the production site.
• Often the procurement or production warehouses are directly connected to production via conveyor systems that bring the items to the production area automatically.

The aim of procurement and production warehouses is to always have sufficient material available to ensure a smooth production process. Companies are then independent from just-in-time deliveries and disruptions in the supply chain. Even though larger procurement and production warehouses are a cost factor, they offer better protection to companies against production losses due to material shortages. As raw materials are stored in the procurement and production warehouses, a lower level of theft protection is usually necessary. In companies that produce high-quality and safety-relevant goods, procurement or production warehouses provide a suitable place to inspect the quality of delivered goods before they go into production.

Intermediate or buffer storage is used within both production and distribution processes. They are always useful when upstream and downstream process stages run at different speeds.

• The main function of intermediate or buffer storage is the temporary storage of raw materials, intermediate products or goods.
• The goods are stored temporarily until they are needed for further processing or delivery.
• Processing does not take place in the intermediate storage facility.

The aim is to ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible and to provide a sufficient quantity of goods for the next production stage or distribution in the shortest possible time. This avoids costs that would arise from a delay in production, commissioning or delivery. Intermediate storage within the production process is situated very close to the production line. Warehouses can be positioned at shipping docks as part of the distribution process.

Quick in, quick out: that's what transshipment warehouses are all about. Raw materials, goods or merchandise are only brought there to be loaded from one means of transport to another, for example from a lorry to a van. They are used, for example, by parcel services or in the food trade. Goods from one or more sources are transported to the transshipment warehouse and distributed directly to new vehicles for onward transport.

• Transshipment warehouses are distinguished by their immense turnover of goods.
• The aim is to keep turnaround times as short as possible.
• They are not intended to provide longer storage.

Cross-docking stations are a particularly efficient form of transshipment warehouse. Trucks can pull up at special docks that are also designed for swap bodies. The goods are unloaded manually or automatically and brought to the gates on conveyor belts, where vans are already waiting.

• In the single-stage system, goods are packed and addressed directly by the sender as ordered by the recipient.
• The two-stage system or transshipment system means that picking and packing for the end customer takes place in the warehouse (see also ‘Order picking warehouse’). A multi-stage process with additional process steps is also possible.

An urban delivery hub allows lightweight cross-docking stations to be set up at low cost. These flexible building solutions are particularly attractive for logistics service providers who operate on the ‘last mile’, for example as food companies or parcel services.

The easier the goods are to access, the better. In the order picking warehouse, the goods for an order are assembled manually or automatically from partial quantities – and as efficiently as possible. The pickers have access to goods and products and take the exact quantity needed for the respective order. 

• Time is a crucial factor in the order picking warehouse. The faster the goods can be packed with the fewest errors, the better.
• The efficiency of an order picking warehouse can be increased by making optimal use of the space with suitable, easily accessible racking systems and optimised walkways.

Dispatch centres frequently use order picking warehouses. There, the desired products are packed and shipped in accordance with the customers' order lists. A deliberate delay in dispatch is possible to allow various individual deliveries to be combined into one.

Distribution warehouses (also known as delivery warehouses or distributing stores) are used after the production stage. They can also be located at the production site. Optimal links to the delivery point, to customers and business partners, branches or directly to the end customer are, however, much more decisive.

• Distribution or delivery warehouses are characterised by a high stock turnover.
• Fast-moving items, i.e. the products that are most in demand in the respective region, are stored above all.
• The delivery warehouse’s aim is to reduce delivery times as much as possible and to ensure that the required stock for a specific region is available quickly.

Theft protection is more important for distribution warehouses than in other areas. It not only stores finished products, which have a higher value than raw goods. The goods and merchandise are usually also already packed and picked. This allows them to be taken away for transport more quickly.

Storage warehouses are characterised by a low turnover of goods. Similar to a buffer storage, they serve to balance out fluctuations in demand. They are mainly used when a delivery period or the price of a raw material or commodity is expected to be subject to strong fluctuations.

If goods are cheap at a certain time, storage warehouses allow companies to store goods before the price rises again. However, the costs of storage must be offset against these savings.

Stockpiles can also be created when a company is dependent on a raw material or product and a continuous supply cannot be guaranteed. Then storage warehouses serve to bridge the time until the next delivery.

A characteristic feature of storage warehouses is that comparatively few product types are stored there. Seasonal fluctuations in demand can also be balanced out with storage warehouses.

Thanks to a flexible modular system, lightweight warehouses can be optimally configured to different storage needs. Depending on the wall cladding, with trapezoidal sheet metal or insulated panels, robust goods can be stored just as well as temperature-sensitive goods. The roof, made from robust industrial PVC, can have an additional textile layer as protection against condensation water, for example for the packaging industry.

• Stable aluminium profiles in unsupported widths of up to 40 m and a freely selectable truss spacing length of 4 or 5 m.
• Short-term delivery and quick assembly possible without foundation
• Cost-effective rental options

With different gate and dock options, the building can be optimally adapted to the warehouse’s operational processes. Lightweight cross-docking stations, for example at an urban delivery hub, are also possible. If storage needs or merchandise routes change, the mobile lightweight building can be quickly dismantled and reassembled at another location.