2. Areas to be covered:
Minimum standards for the warehouse building
Roles of warehouse personnel
Storage considerations
Needed equipment
Warehouse records ( Receiving commodities)
Warehouse records ( Dispatching commodities)
Physical count
3. Minimum standards for the building of the
warehouse
The facility should be able to protect
commodities from weather, pests and theft
Walls and ceilings should be sound
construction- no leaks
Doors should be of good quality and well
secured
Warehouse should be easily accessed
The facility should be large enough to store at
least one month allocation
4. Roles of Warehouse Personnel
Update warehouse records and keep
warehouse files
Keep daily balance of each commodity
Assure that first in first out policy is followed
Preparing reports
Keep warehouse and surrounding area clean
Implement system of pest control
Commodity inspection
Maintaining security of the warehouse
5. Storage considerations- what constitutes a good
warehouse for commodity storage?
The maximum storage capacity should not be exceeded
Keep warehouse records, i.e. reconcile book balance and
stock/stack cards after every movement
Food commodities should not be stored together with
some other products
Different types of commodities should be kept in separate
stacks
Dunnage should always be used when stacking
commodities i.e pallets
Bags should not hang over the edge of pallets
6. Maintain a distance of 60cm-1m between stacks
Ensure good commodity handling ( FIFO)
Stack torn/torn bags separately from good bags and
dispatched as soon as possible
Fire extinguishers and all equipments should be
available in the warehouse
Ensure cleanliness inside the warehouse and its
surrounding
Security- The warehouse should be well secured (
Maintain a register for visitors visiting the warehouse
7. Assessing warehouse capacity
Use the following formula:
Capacity= (LengthxWidthx(Heigth-1)-15%
1.8
Example: A warehouse with the following
measurements:
Length: 15m
width : 8m
Height: 3m
Calculate the quantity in MT of Corn Soy Blend
that can be kept in the warehouse.
9. Warehouse equipment
The following need to be available at the warehouse
before operations starts:
Major equipments:
Pallets (1mx1m)
Fire extinguishers
Platform scales
Ladders
Tarpaulins
Empty sacks (25kg) for reconditioning
Empty sacks (50kg) for reconditioning
Empty jerry cans (5litres) for reconditioning
Needles for stitching torn bags,
Twine/thread,brooms,shovels, wheelbarrows
11. Documentation during commodity receipts/storage
The warehouse officer should ensure the following:
Copy of the commodity Dispatch Notice(Advise) with information on how
much quantities to be received in a day.
Waybills- Ensure that all commodities are received with supporting
documentation
Sample weighting forms- Record the number of bags sample weighed
during commodity receipts ( 10% of the number of bags delivered in one
truck load)
Tally sheets- carefully count the units and record any bag entering the
warehouse
Stack cards or Bin cards- records the inflow and outflow of the
commodities
Commodity control ledger- records by type of commodity all incoming
and out going from waybills and dispatch note
Daily movement report- this should be prepared on daily basis
indicating the movement of commodities and balances for a day.
12. Dispatching commodities- required documents
Availability of approved Commodity Dispatch
Notice (CDN)
Commodities should be released as per the
information indicated on the CDN
Use tally sheets when loading commodities
Use the sample weighting form to record the
number of bags sampled per truck load
Update the following record appropriately after
commodity dispatch: Stack cards and commodity
control Ledger
Prepare a commodity daily movement report
13. Commodity physical count – Why conducting Physical
inventory?
It is a requirement of title II regulation
Allows regular inspection of commodities to detect early
deterioration
It ensures accuracy of stocks as compared to records
Should be conducted monthly, last working day of the month
after all transaction have been captured.
Should always be conducted by an employee not involved.
Preparations for physical inventory
Ensure that commodities are properly stacked for easy counting
Availability of physical count forms- where the counted figures
are recorded
Use of check list for warehouse monitoring for general inspection
Any difference between the actual count and records found
should be investigated and reported
