Warehousing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Warehousing - Essay Example The need for operations managers to reduce manufacturing costs, optimize productivity and improve product quality in order to stay in the market has become imperative. Many organizations now recognize the importance of automation, optimization of scheduling and a proper inventory management system, and are incorporating total quality management and total quality in their operations. Every organization invests a considerable amount of capital on materials. In many cases, the cost of materials exceeds 50 percent of the total cost of goods produced ((ICMR), 2003). Such a large investment requires considerable planning and control so as to minimize wastage. Even before we talk about planning and control it is inevitable that the material is stored in a safe place and such place of storing materials is termed as a warehouse. Hence, Warehousing can be defined as the process of storing goods or merchandise safely (Answers.com, 2004). Inventory refers to a stock of goods, commodities, or other economic resources that are held by firms at a particular time for their future production requirements and for meeting future demands. Inventories can be direct or indirect. Direct inventories include goods that play an important role in manufacturing of a product and become a part of the finished product. Direct inventories include raw materials, work-in-progress goods, etc. Indirect inventories include goods that are necessary to run the production process but do not become part of the end product. For example, lubricants, grease, oils, stationery etc, are indirect inventories. 2. Brief History of Warehousing As defined above, a warehouse is a commercial building used for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by people like manufacturers, importers, exporters, people in the logistics industry etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They come equipped with loading docks to load and unload trucks; or sometimes are loaded directly from railways, airports, or seaports. They also often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks (Answers.com, 2004). With advent of globalization and information technology, now-a-days, warehouses are being fully automated. In such automated warehouses, there are hardly any workers found working inside. The pallets and product are moved with a system of automated conveyors and automated storage and retrieval machines coordinated by programmable logic controllers and computers running logistics automation software (Answers.com, 2004). With the introduction of new and recent technologies like Just-in-time (JIT) and ABC classification systems,

Social Psychology- Social Cognition Charles de Menezes Case Essay

Social Psychology- Social Cognition Charles de Menezes Case - Essay Example The aim of social cognition is to study the specific aspects that create the mental structure and the process that leads to actions (Bodenhousen, Macrae & Hugenberg 2003, p.257). Man’s behavior towards other people depends on his internal cognitive structure about other people. Every action, whether it is planned or spontaneous, is driven by the social cognitive structure of mind. Hence, it won’t be wrong to say that the killing of Mr. Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead after being mistaken for a terrorist called Hussain Osman (Swaine 2008), was actually not a case of mistaken identity, but was a result of the distortion in the internal cognitive structure of people who were responsible for the killing. Mr. Charles de Menezes was shot seven times in his head by the plain clothes officers, without giving him warning or without making sure that he was the right person (Swaine 2008). The intention of the police operation was to keep a watch of the flats where Osman lived and stop anyone leaving the flats or arrest them quietly for investigation (Bailey 2008). When Mr. Charles de Menezes left the flat, he was folowed by differnt officers to the tube station where he boarded the subway car (Bailey 2008). During this whole process, officers ‘James’, ‘Frank’,‘Ivory’ and ‘Laurence’, who were following Mr. Menezes, were not sure if he was the man they were looking for. In fact ‘Laurence’ told the team that he did not believe the person was identical to the man they were looking for (Bailey 2008). After all these signals from the surveillance officers about Mr. Menezes not being ‘their’