Johannesburg, 30 Nov 2004
Companies involved in warehousing can increase their operational performance, enhance stock and process management, cut costs and boost return on investment (ROI) on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems by using advanced mobile data solutions.
This is the word from Mark Lilje, MD of mobile data specialist RangeGate SA, 83.6%-owned by JSE Securities Exchange-listed Datatec.
"By enhancing and mobilising critical warehouse control functions of ERP and warehouse management systems, businesses will benefit from improved accuracy and response to customer orders, and they will streamline their operations by eliminating picking errors, inaccuracies and shrinkage," says Lilje.
Specifically to address these needs, RangeGate has announced its Warehouse-EDGE solution, intelligent middleware that integrates with ERP and warehouse management systems, giving accurate control of all remote operator actions through wireless terminals and scanners.
Lilje says companies can benefit from rapid ROI on their warehouse management systems through real-time management of three key functions:
* Inbound and outbound warehouse control in real-time: Transactions and movements such as stock receiving, stock checks, returns, put-aways, stock picking, marshalling, packing and vehicle loading can be fully logged and managed using handheld scanners and wireless terminals.
* Stock, asset and operator management in real-time: Mobile data solutions enable 100% accuracy of every warehouse transaction, from initial goods receipt and put-away to picking and shipping of customer orders. By managing every operator transaction, the mobile solution can extract detailed productivity information, helping to provide what-if scenarios and labour scheduling information.
* Workload, workforce and equipment management: Mobile solutions give control of tasks and workflow on the warehouse floor, using information on worker profile, type of equipment, operator position and work priorities to drive improved efficiency in the warehouse.
Warehouse-EDGE acts as a task management application designed to offer Real-time operator and work management for existing stores, warehousing and retail management systems. With its ability to take a wide variety of information from external hosts and then map this information to operator tasks, Warehouse-EDGE provides extended functionality, proven to manage both difficult and time-critical environments, with seamless integration. Its server operates flexible interfaces to existing inventory management applications, collecting information through RangeGate radio frequency (RF) technology to provide real-time access and validation, finally confirming business-critical data back to the originating host.
Key to the Warehouse-EDGE technology is ensuring all business logic and inventory remains on the external host, with the solution focusing on driving productivity and accuracy improvements using real-time mobile communications. Warehouse-EDGE is part of RangeGate`s mobile solution set, Mobile-EDGE, which encompasses multiple solutions for wirelessly optimising business processes.
"Fully integrated mobile solutions offer numerous administrative and cost benefits to warehousing organisations," says Lilje. "Warehouse-EDGE has been developed specifically for this environment, with the bottom line goal of reducing the cost of managing warehouse functions while keeping centralised inventory and business process control."
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