A. Read the text and think of your own examples illustrating the modern trends of warehousing and the impact of the Internet on storage. Write a summary of the text.

Warehousing and Storage ^[49]

Products must be stored at the plant or in the field for later sale and consumption unless customers need them the instant they are produced. Generally, the grater the time lag between production and consumption is, the larger is the level or amount of inventory required. Warehousing and storage activities involve the management of the space needed to hold or maintain inventories. Specific storage activities include decisions as to whether the storage facility should be owned, leased, or rented; layout and design of storage facilities; product mix considerations (e.g. what products should be stored?); safety and maintenance procedures; personnel training; and productivity measurement.

Traditional warehousing has declined since the last decades of the 20th century, with the gradual introduction of Just-in-Time (JIT) techniques. The JIT system promotes product delivery directly from suppliers to consumer without the use of warehouses. However, with the gradual implementation of offshore outsourcing and off shoring in about the same time period, the distance between the manufacturer and the retailer (or the parts manufacturer and the industrial plant) grew considerably in many domains, necessitating at least one warehouse per country or per region in any typical supply chain for a given range of products.

Recent retailing trends have led to the development of warehouse-style retail stores. These high-ceiling buildings display retail goods on tall, heavy duty industrial racks rather than conventional retail shelving. Typically, items ready for sale are on the bottom of the racks, and crated or palletized inventory is in the upper rack. Essentially, the same building serves as both warehouse and retail store.

Large exporters/manufacturers use warehouses as distribution points for developing retail outlets in a particular region or country. This concept reduces end cost to the consumer and enhances the production sale ratio. The internet has had an influence on warehouses. Internet-based stores do not require physical retail space, but still require warehouses to store goods. This kind of warehouse fills many small orders directly from end customers rather than fewer orders of many items from stores.

Having a large and complex supply chain containing many warehouses can be costly. It may be beneficial for a company to have one large warehouse per continent, typically located centrally to transportation. At these continental hubs, goods may be customized for different countries. For example, goods get a price ticket in the language of the destination country. Small, in-warehouse adjustments to goods are called value added services.

 

b. Explain the following concepts in English:

1. warehousing	2. just-in-time
3. leasing	4. outsourcing
5. off shoring	6. retailing
7. product	8. conventional retail
9. end cost	10. hub
11. value added service	12. retail store

 

c. Match words to make collocations consulting the text:

1. maintenance	a) customer
2. productivity	b) chain
3. distribution	c) ticket
4. retail	d) procedure
5. supply	e) measurement
6. price	f) point
7. end	g) outlet

 

d. Match synonyms 1-12 to a-l:

1. product	2. to store
3. to produce	4. plant
5. inventory	6. to decline
7. technique	8. domain
9. essentially	10. to enhance
11. costly	12. to be beneficial

 

a) to extend	b) primarily
c) to manufacture	d) expensive
e) to be advantageous	f) to reduce
g) method	h) sphere
i) to keep	j) commodity
k) factory	l) stock

 

e. Fill in the table with word forms:

Verb	Noun	Adjective
1. maintain
2.	facility
3.		industrial