Ready for Flexible Warehouse Management Software

The advent of ecommerce ordering, coupled with next or same day delivery has placed the wholesale warehouse under pressure to achieve perfect fulfilment every time.

Wholesalers have always played an important role in the centre of the relationship between retailers and manufacturers. With technology making our world ever more connected, this relationship is facing increasing pressures around competitive pricing, product availability and high service levels.

Having a robust, flexible, yet simple to operate WMS in place is the solution. Picking accuracy will improve, leading to an increase in productivity and lower costs. When fully integrated with other systems a WMS will give operational transparency as the ERP is automatically updated.

Key Wholesale benefits:

• Pick to Trolley

• Contract Packing

• Quarantine and Quality Control

• Mixed Carton Picking and Packing

3PL / 4PL operations are at the cutting edge of warehousing, always looking to reduce costs and improve customer service in order to secure new contracts.

Modern logistics is driven by the ever increasing pressures of getting goods delivered on demand, on time and at a low cost. With increases of traffic flow in transportation systems, higher penalties in service level agreements and constantly changing regulations, 3PL and 4PL companies are under even greater pressure to achieve and perform.

The use of up-to-date technology can be a 3PL's best friend. By utilising the latest technology, with tried and tested procedures, a Logistics Manager can ease the pressure upon himself and his staff enormously.

Key 3PL / 4PL benefits:

• Client Portal

• ERP Integration

• Multi-Warehouse

• Activity & Transaction Billing

Retailers are facing ever increasing pressure from consumers. They expect excellent customer service and immediate, accurate delivery. Any delay or other fulfilment problem leads to social media complaints and bad PR.

Running a retail warehouse has become harder over the past decade. To keep up with consumer demand and delivery expectations, many warehouses have changed to a 24x7 operation. Picking has changed from just pallets and boxes to include single items, often from the same pick face. Resources have to stretch further to provide continually better customer service, as consumers will vote with their feet if you let them down.

Technology investment is key to company growth and the warehouse is a vital area to invest in, a WMS should be flexible and agile, able to respond to sudden increases in demand. Your website can take orders anytime and anywhere, however a delay in orders passing through the warehouse will lose you customers.

Key Retail benefits:

• Warehouse Map

• Quality Control

• Pick to Trolley

• Warehouse Optimisation

As a key part of your manufacturing operation, your warehouse should operate at optimum levels without overstocking or storing out of date stock. Finished goods need to be stored in the right location and picked by pre-determined rules.

By scanning goods in, around and out of the warehouse the resulting captured data will give traceability for delivery, returned goods and product recall processes. Real-time data identifies when items need replenishment and a WMS should automatically assign this task.

Warehousing is just one component of the manufacturing supply chain that benefits from using a WMS and technology, even though a vital one. Ideally, you should really undertake to integrate all of your systems together. If every stock item is accurately tracked through the warehouse then the data gathered can be used to improve your services, have visibility of your operation and define long-term strategies.

Key Finished Goods benefits:

• Batch Traceability

• Pick to Trolley

• Quarantine and Quality Control

• Best Before & Expiry Date Management

Cold stores have to deal with all the regulations of an ambient food and drink warehouse, however they also face unique issues due to the freezing temperatures. Employees have to wear suitable clothing that doesn't expose skin, as well as taking regular breaks in a warm environment. Best before dates, stock rotation, cross contamination all have to be taken into consideration. Customer contracts can be lost if the correct quality stock isn't delivered as promised.

Fast, efficient processes are key to a successful cold store; you don't want to waste time trying to find stock. Technology can help with speed and accuracy as long as it is designed to work in harsh conditions. A WMS that uses task interleaving can help improve productivity by making sure team members don't return from a task empty-handed.

Key Cold Store benefits:

• Task Interleaving

• Quality Control

• Batch Traceability

• Best Before and Expiry Date Management

Best before dates. Sell by dates. Rotation of stock. New food regulations released almost on a daily basis. All these factors and the speed required to get stock delivered contribute to the pressures felt by food warehouse operations. Suppliers to retailers and restaurants can face SLA penalties or even loss of contracts if they fail to deliver quality stock on time. And no company wants to be involved in a food recall.

The warehouse is the heart of your business, it needs a modern, integrated WMS to run it. A WMS will allow you to implement rules around stock to be used next and where to store products to prevent allergen contamination. If the worse happens then full auditing will allow you to accurately see which customers had a particular batch.

Key Food and Drink benefits:

• Batch Traceability

• Warehouse Map

• Task Interleaving

• Best Before and Expiry Date Management

Pharmaceutical warehouses must adhere to rigorous controls and regulations to ensure the health and safety of the consumer. Traceability and FIFO rules are essential.

Warehousing management in the Pharmaceutical industry has its own set of unique rules that have to be adhered to. You must stock, pick, and ship product in a way that conforms to the many regulations that the sector demands.

Key Pharmaceutical benefits:

• FIFO rules

• Batch Traceability

• Expiry dates

• Quality Control