WAREHOUSING

I was standing at the gates; the vehicle was ready to take us to the warehouse. But there was no sign of Stylo. Around fifteen minutes later, as usual, he came running down the staircase struggling with his half worn shirt, a piece of sandwich in his mouth and holding his shoes in the other hand. Everyone knew Stylo for this style of his entering the vehicle. That is how he was. The drive to the warehouse was around twenty minutes. It was a huge warehouse, around an area of three to four acres of land. At the entrance to the warehouse the security guards were posted who waved at Stylo. There were two huge trucks parked inside, near to the exit. Stylo waved his hand to one of the drivers of the truck.

“Hey Sthyloo” called up one of the guys peeping from behind huge piles of brown coloured cartons placed at one corner of the warehouse. These were some of the merchandise ready to be dispatched to the stores. His name was Nestor, from Manila. Nestor was one of the employees working in the warehouse and his responsibility was to help the staffs coming from the stores to do the “picking” of merchandise for the next days trading in the stores. It was clear by now that Stylo was a frequent visitor to this place. The inward bay was very spacious and allowed an entire truck to get in. All the stocks used to get unloaded at this point. To the right side was the warehouse manager’s cabin. Stylo took me inside the cabin and introduced me to Stanley, the manager. He then opened one of the registers lying on the table, pulled out the pen from Stanley’s pocket with a smile on his face. Stanley looked at me with an expression which said everything about what he thought of Stylo. He told me to enter all the details on the page having columns with name, coming from, time in, and signature pre-printed in black font. Once I entered all the details we went to a corner where the water cooler was placed. As it was a very hot day it was a delight to quench the thirst with the cool water that came from the cooler. It was also a routine for Stylo to order some chilled cans of “moosy”, a non-alcoholic beer. The first time I tasted I felt it was sweet lime. “It’s the lemon flavour” was the reply from him. Stylo had tasted all the flavours.

The bins inside the warehouse were made of slotted angles at two levels. At the lower level all the menswear merchandise were either hung or stacked. The loose merchandise consisting of trousers, casual shirts, t-shirts were all seen hanging neatly on hangers placed on the rods which were horizontally fixed to the slot angles. Below them were all the other stocks placed in cartons. On the upper level to the lefts side ladies merchandise were hung or stacked in a similar way and to the right side the kids merchandise were placed. All the merchandise was neatly covered in polythene covers so as they do not get soiled.
Every entrance to a particular bin was labelled mentioning the particular department or section at each level. Each level was further segmented and labelled for the particular type of merchandise available. Further within every segment all the styles of merchandise were labelled as per SKU code, colour wise and style wise. I was fascinated to see such an arrangement done in so detail, which made it very easy for one to do the picking of stocks. It is here that I learnt receiving of stocks, proper stacking of stocks, labelling the stocks, documenting the merchandise receivedsame, and where and how to place the price tag on a product and the reason for the same. Gradually my presence in the warehouse made me learn and understand the different departments, sections and individual SKU’s of a product. During those days we ourselves had to do the requisition of the stocks required and get the same from the ware-houseEvery week Wwe used to take turns to go had to go personally to the warehouse to pick new arrivals and other stocks required in the store. I used to enjoy this activity a lot as in due course I learnt the product codes, their price points, the sizes, the various colours it comes in, and of course could tell which stock is fast moving and which isn’t. We could generate all this from the system also, but what was interesting is you learn more efficiently when you get involved in the activity practically, hence we preferred going to the warehouse every week.

The stock picking sheets which were already filled by the individual staffs from the respective departments had to be taken along with us to the warehouse physically. Stylo had the sheets with him. He showed me one of them and told me to go through it. He then explained me how to go about with the picking activity at the warehouse. He told me to enter bin-by bin, first to start with one particular section, then mark either the top wear first or the bottom wear. As I was assigned the men’s department I preferred taking the picking list of the men’s section. The process was very easy and gradually I learnt the trick of how one can efficiently do the picking. Once the stocks were picked at the warehouse we then had to segregate the stocks as per sections, and then physically count the products. It had to be entered in one of the registers by the warehouse employee. The warehouse executive then used to take the stocks to the out warding bay, scan the products into the system individually, tally the same with the quantity entered in the register, prepare the Stock Transfer Note (STN) and then place in cartons for packing. Every individual carton had a separate stock transfer note prepared and placed inside the carton. The cartons with the merchandise were also packed as per sections, and then the carton used to be packed by a masking tape. Bert showed me how to pack the carton.

“Make sure you write the location, date, quantity and section over the masking tape sealed on the carton, and not on the carton.”
I ensured the same and understood that by doing this you do not spoil the carton, and can use the same once again to re-send stocks.We

It was almost two o’clock in the afternoon. I happened to stand and watch the sea of sand few meters away from the site of the warehouse. I could feel the scorching heat on my face and fore arms. It was like someone had placed burning coal on my skin. What I noticed just few minutes after that was something very fascinating, something which I had only heard about, and read in Tintin comic books. It was a mirage. I literally could see an oasis, a bedazzling image of a small pond like structure.

Stylo looked at me and asked, “Have you observed something like this in Mumbai” and smiled at me, obvious to show that he was excited with the fact that we could see mirages in real form right in front of our eyes.

He then took me to Alex’s small mobile accommodation, which was stalled inside the warehouse itself. Alex had a small canteen to sell refreshments, cookies, cigarettes to the staffs. He also used to provide lunch. Stylo ordered for two rice plate, which included boiled rice, butter milk curry, pickle, pappad and fried fish, a speciality of Kerala. I enjoyed the lunch to some extent.

Once we ensured all the picking was over and neatly packed, we met Stanley, where Stylo updated him as to picking of which departments were done and reconfirmed with him as to when the stocks would arrive at the store. We then signed out on the register and came back to our villa. The store used to be closed in the afternoons and open only at 5pm in the evening.

Once we reached the store we had to personally used to receive the merchandise arrived from the warehouse. same merchandise at the storeAs Stylo and I had been to the warehouse that day it was our job to do the receiving as well. We had to physically count the stocks carton wise and tally with the stock transfer note available inside each individual carton. The stocks from each individual carton were then in-warded in the system and the Goods Receipt Note (GRN) was prepared. So for every STN a GRN had to be prepared. The same details had to be then entered in the in-warding register. Any discrepancy had to be highlighted and later communicated to the warehouse through the store manager.and display theThe stocks were then displayed inside the store. Vikas and Momin used to ensure that we display the stocks properly. I was trained on how to place the stocks, for instance the jeans had to be folded in such a way that the labels face the customer when placed on the shelves. All the products had to be displayed product wise, brand wise, style wise, colour wise and size wise, starting from the small size to the bigger. Because all the activities were personally done by us we got to learn the operations of the store very effectively and this made me more inclined to store operations as I got to learn a lot from this department.