When we go to an warehouse we hear a lot of strange terminologies . It gets us weeks to understand each one fully. We will discuss the terminologies used in Apparel sector warehouse here. The list is not exhaustive and will be updated.
- ASN:- ASN stands for Advance shipment note or sometimes Advance shipment notice. It is provided by the supplier to the warehouse in advance which tells that “Hey the goods are about to be transported, be ready to receive” It may be in the form of scanned copy of invoice with PO (Purchase order) details. ASN helps in planning out space requirement for the incoming material and also helps to track any moving consignment.
- GIN:- GIN stands for Goods inward note. It is a number generated whenever any inward shipment is received by warehouse security. In it we note the vehicle detail, time, mode of shipment and the stated quantity of material. It is to be noted that we don’t involve physical checking of material to verify the quantity at micro level. Such as we can write 3 rolls of fabric but but physically determine that it contains 300 meters of fabric at this stage, we rely on what is stated in receipt.
- GRN:- GRN stands for Goods receive note. It is a unique number allotted to the receiving process of every receipt. Its process includes physical verification of goods in terms of quantity, quality and pricing with respect to the raised PO. Sometimes to facilitate expedite the process of receiving the goods from the transporter, there is a common practice of ” Two step GRN”. In it the first step includes in depth verification of tallying invoice and PO and number of Consignment units eg. rolls or cartons. Then a proof of delivery with GRN number is given to transporter. Then rest of GRN process is carried out in second step. GRN is the basis for payment to the supplier.
- MRL:- MRL stands for Material requirement list or material requirement log. It contains the list of all the material requirement for the given product or process. It should not be confused with BOM (bill of material). This is a super-set of BOM. It contains addition information about the purchase orders, who raised the PO, the description of the product, order date, promised date of delivery and a lot more relevant data.
- GDI:- GDI stands for Goods dispatched instruction. it is a requisition instruction sent by an internal or external site for the available material inside the warehouse. It includes picking list, specification of material, material code and quantity.
- GDN:- GDN stands for goods dispatch note. It is a type of documentation done which records the types of material, material code and the quantity being dispatched. It helps in maintaining the integrity of the shipment and acts as a verification document for the receiving end entity.
- Batch Picking:- Batch picking is a term used when we club different items to be picked in one picking list to minimize the administration and information flow delay. It helps in maximizing the efficiency, at at the same time highly infavouarble for the throughput time of picking for one material. The batch size should be carefully decided to optimize the operation.
- Blanket order:- Blanket orders stands for the large quantity orders placed by a customer to fulfill the MOQ and is done mostly without a delivery date. As the customer needs the supply, the delivery is done. Its a win-win situation for both the parties as customers gets lower rate and the suppliers gets a bulk order quantity which he can distribute over a period of time to do production leveling.
- BOM:- BOM stands for Bill of materials. It is a table prepared for every end product, which contains list of all the raw materials required for unit piece product, price, date of in-house of material and the status of quantity available.
- Head Ends:- Head ends are the piece of fabric taken out from each roll to test the property of the rolls such as shrinkage, shade and cuttable width. Most of the companies cut head ends for fabric testing from the bulk at the arrival of bulk rolls. Ideally it is advised to fast ship the head ends from mills to warehouse, which will ensure that tests are done before arrival of bulk fabric thus reduce the chances of rejection when in stock and decreases lead time.
- FCR:- FCR stands for Fabric control report. It is a report consisting of all the test result, shade grouping of fabric rolls, shrinkage report and technical face and back of fabric. Sometimes it also contains the the wash approved samples.
- DC:- Its a vernacular term used for any note that is prepared for shipment of any article. It stands for delivery challan. It is a authorization letter granted to the transporter that now he can move the material. It contains the transaction date, goods details, value, origin and destination along with authorization and PO reference (if any).
- HSN:- HSN stands for Harmonized system of nomenclature. It has been developed by the WCO (world customs organization) and is accepted worldwide. It provides a 6 digit unique code to nearly 98% of the items that are traded worldwide. It helps in faster tax determination and goods control and verification at customs.
- Carousal:- Carousal storage are the type of storage system used where space constraint is a prominent factor and the type of articles are high but frequency of withdrawal of each item is low. It is suited for the purpose of record keeping, storing sampling trims and similar requirements.
- Case Picking:- It is a pick method where instead of picking up individual materials, a whole case is picked up. It is useful for the storage systems where all the raw material fr particular order is placed in one case. This reduced audit and retrieval time to a vast scale and prevents mixing of raw materials.
- Clear Height:- Clear height is the clearance distance between the floor and the lowest hanging obstruction from the roof. Sometimes it is confused with ceiling height. eg. If the roof is at 16 feet and a light fixture of 3 feet height is hanging from the ceiling, then roof height is 16 feet but clear height is 13 feet only.
- Cube logic:- When we start using warehouse, in some case we fill all the floor space with the material and start complaining that there is a lack of space. We ignore the vertical available space. The cube logic suggest to use the whole vertical as well as horizontal space. It helps in maximizing the capacity of warehouse or the container. “Cubed out” is a term used when all the volumetric space has been utilized by the materials.
- Safety stock:- Safety stock is the buffer stock which is maintained in case of delay of raw material ordered to prevent disruption in the production.