Five-star warehouse operations offer services to their customers that go well beyond the traditional storage capabilities. Respondents to our Quest for Quality survey emphasized the importance of quality warehouses doing more for them than just holding products under a roof. Indeed, one survey respondent described a quality warehouse as having convenience of location, extended hours of operation, and integration of shipping and warehousing services. Another reader wrote that a quality warehouse shows knowledge of the customer's business needs.

Warehousing excellence also requires a vendor to provide service outside the walls of its facilities. One respondent defined a first-rate warehouse as having "the ability and willingness to jump through a hoop to get an order out on extreme short notice. It's an on-demand world."

Another manager who responded to the survey seeks out warehouses that provide "open communication, gain sharing, and cutting-edge technology." Another looks for warehouses that are responsive. "When I call, I don't want to get voice mail or be placed on hold for long periods of time," said that reader. "Answers to my questions are also important."

A number of respondents said that they look for a clean facility. Others said they prefer warehouses that operate around the clock. "I look for ease of doing business with the ability to contact them 24/7," wrote one reader.

The warehousing category is relatively new to the Quest for Quality; it was added to the survey just last year to recognize the important role that warehouses play in the supply chain.

This year readers lifted seven warehouses into the highest tier for excellence. Four of this year's honorees, by the way, won medals last year—United Facilities, Total Warehousing, NFI National Distribution Centers, and WOW Logistics. Joining them this year in the quality circle were Federal Warehouse Co., LOGISCO, and Amware Logistics Services.

As a group, the composite marks for warehousing towered above last year's. This time around warehouses amassed an overall weighted score of 35.67, significantly stronger than last year's score of 32.71.

Marks were hoisted to the upper racks in all five categories. On-time performance rose from 9.60 last year to 10.98 this year. Value lifted from 7.46 to 8.00. Information technology, meanwhile, advanced from 3.80 to 4.03. Customer service moved to 7.71 compared to 7.44 last year. And finally, equipment and operations shot up from 4.41 to 4.94.

When ranking the attributes of warehousing service, readers singled out performance as being the most important. They gave performance a value of 4.5, signaling that warehousing is truly a customer-service business. As noted earlier, logistics managers seek out facilities that do a whole lot more than just store goods on a shelf.

Survey takers gave the second-highest ranking to overall value, assigning it a score of 3.4.

Next came customer service with an attribute ranking of 3.2. Equipment and operations was rated at 2.1, and information technology was valued at just 1.8.

The attributes were then used to calculate the winners. Survey participants evaluate the vendors' performance against each of the specified attributes, and the raw scores were multiplied by the average importance attached to each attribute. Any warehouse that exceeded the weighted average for the group of 35.67 received a medal this year.