The Difference Between A Storage Facility and A Warehouse
Storage warehouses are commonly, confused with storage facility. However, these two are different from each other. The former is used for industrial purpose while the latter may be used for personal or business needs. A storage warehouse is a commercial building that is used for storage of goods. It is usually, located in an industrial area since it is not meant for personal use. These warehouses are of use to wholesalers, retailers, exporters, manufacturers, transporters and so on. Moreover, warehouses have loading docks too. Unlike the regular storage units, these warehouses have forklifts and cranes for loading and unloading bulk products. In fact, these warehouses come with climate-controlled facility to store perishable items.
Things That Matter the Most
Design – In case of warehouses, the design of the unit plays an important role. It can make a huge difference to the customer experience. Things like, on site assistance, warm and friendly staff, packing services, loading and offloading services can be very crucial. These basic services can make a customer happy and satisfied. The storage facility design is one of the most important things that matters.
Automation – There are moving and storage services that are fully automated. They do not require workers inside the facility. They are equipped with automated conveyors, cranes, programmable logic controllers, automation software, running and logistic software and pallet rack or carton flow.
Warehouse Style Retail Store – These days, retailers have ventured into warehouse style retail stores wherein the products are stored and sold from the same place. They do not use the regular types of shelves. Instead, retailers have combined the two aspects of retailing and storing and incorporated both of them into one. The high ceiling buildings display products on industrial racks. The lower racks are used for retail selling and the upper racks are used for storing. Indeed, it is a unique storage facility and has brought a revolutionary change in the moving storage services.
Self-storage warehouses are places where a customer can safe keep his personal belongings. In fact, they can be used by business organizations too, for storing documents and other important paperwork. It is certainly, different from a warehouse because in a warehouse, an industrialist will probably stock up similar items or products. However, regular moving storage services or personal storage facility will have a variety of items belonging to different customers. Hence, a regular facility has different types and sizes of units to suit different needs. Unlike a warehouse, that does not have different sizes and types of units. Even if it does have some variation, it will be very different from a regular unit.
It is interesting to note that warehouses have existed since several centuries whereas storage units are a recent development. Typically, the structure of a warehouse is very different from a regular unit. A warehouse will have concrete floor with high metal shelves. Regular storage facilities will have state of the art technology with beautiful interiors and exteriors, comfort being the focus.