EWM-Background and history

A warehouse is a building where goods may be received, labeled, catalogued, picked, packed, and shipped. The roots of the warehouse go back to the creation of storehouses to store food, which was historically available for purchase during times of famine.

Slowly, as Europeans began to create shipping trade routes with neighboring nations, warehouses grew in importance for the storage of goods from afar.

Before the railroads, warehouses were often located near the major seaports or at the manufacturing facility. Warehouses were mainly operated by a team of workers. As railroads and, later, airports began to expand travel and transportation, the creation of warehouses near the rail depots or airports for the storage of materials became necessary.

Since then the warehouse has gained importance in the supply chain, resulting in several different types of warehouses like public warehouses, private warehouses, commercial warehouses, contract warehouses, leased warehouses, and so on. Warehousing companies are now striving to become more than simply storage facilities.
Many companies or department stores like Sam’s Club and Costco have turned their warehouses into true commercial buildings. They may be called warehouse stores, but the concept is that instead of spending a lot of money on merchandising and attractive displays, these companies concentrate on maximizing utilization of rack space, minimizing material
handling, better control of inventory, and easy replenishment. This allows them to offer much lower prices to the consumers by minimizing the supply chain cost.