Johannesburg, 29 Jun 2018
When it comes to managing workflow, warehousing operations face pretty much the same challenges as businesses. There's often several software solutions implemented that don't integrate and a fair degree of manual intervention is required to get an overall view of the state of operations.
It's all about optimising your warehouse, says Stephen Corrigan, CEO of Palladium Business Solutions. "If you make your warehouse more efficient, you can do more business and improve turnover."
Optimising the warehouse covers everything from how it's physically set up to how stock is stored and moved around. Corrigan explains: "Are your shelves set up in such a way that pickers can get the items that are more commonly required quickly?
"Such items should be near the front of the warehouse. And is the stock split between multiple bins, so that you can have some of the stocked items up front to facilitate quick picking, with the bulk stored further back in the warehouse?"
Both of these strategies enable you to get stock out more quickly so you can invoice faster. However, you can only deploy these types of efficiencies if your workflow management software enables it, says Corrigan.
"A lot of accounting software only allows you to allocate one bin location per item. What's ideal is to be able to allocate or store several items in one or more bins and to be able to invoice from either bin when stock is picked.
"It also means that there's no need to perform set physical count stocks, as you can now process continual stock checks more granularly by bin location, meaning that you could count the bulk stock locations one week and selected pick bins as and when required."
The key, according to Corrigan, is deploying business software that incorporates enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities with a warehouse management system in one.
He says, "When you have disparate systems, particularly where the ERP solution does not handle multi-bin locations, the ability to keep these systems in check becomes onerous and problematic. Not only is this labour intensive, but mistakes generally creep in, resulting in an inaccurate reflection of stock levels."
Matters become increasingly complex when items have batch or serial numbers that have to be tracked.
Corrigan says, "In this instance, it's important to record when the item is delivered to the warehouse, when it is picked and when it is packed according to the serial or batch number. This ensures traceability as well as ensuring that older inventory is distributed before newer inventory, according to the first in, first out method."
Traditionally, most of the above tasks are performed by either making manual notes or using a PC-linked scanner. However, the latest evolution in warehouse and inventory optimisation are mobile Android applications that can turn any Android cellphone into a scanner, or run on newer scanners that are replacing the older Windows Mobile operating systems with the more modern Android counterpart.
"The apps are directly connected to the ERP system so inventory levels are updated on the fly, which means you always know exactly what you have in your warehouse on a real-time basis rather than having the paperwork done at a later stage, resulting in what can be a severe process lag and the related inaccuracies that go along with it.."
Warehouse employees become more efficient because they don't have to manually capture data at a later stage, it's done there and then as they receive, pick and pack stock. The mobile app can be used to track stock as it's moved between bins or even warehouses, it records goods received, tracks pick tickets and even product deliveries.
Corrigan describes the mobile app capability as 'moving warehouse management from paper to glass'. He says, "Having your warehouse management system completely integrated into your ERP solution has so many advantages. Where businesses run two separate solutions, you'll find that some transactions and items will inevitably fall by the wayside. There will always be discrepancies between what the system says and what the physical reality is."
In addition, implementing this kind of integrated solution means that the warehouse manager does not need to be technologically savvy. If they can use smartphone apps, then they will be able to use a warehouse management system. Technology like this is a true efficiency tool, as it allows users to focus on their core competencies, such as their expertise in warehouse management and stock control, and not be hampered by the technology.
"Inventory management is one of the single most important aspects of most businesses. If you can cut back on time and manpower spent counting and checking inventory, you can free up those people to perform other tasks that will contribute to the bottom line, while ensuring that orders are dispatched more timeously to customers with a much higher degree of accuracy."
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