The focus of Dovetail’s 2014 roadshow is ‘What’s New with Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)?’ The theme was chosen with much debate, discussion and determination as we try to relay the best possible information to our current and prospective clients.
As warehouse efficiency is the number one secret to ensuring success in a supply chain, we felt that it would be beneficial to discuss what new features are present with warehouse management systems, what trends are prevalent in the industry and how warehousing software should be applied for success.
The warehousing industry never stands still. New technologies, strategies and models are continuously rolled out and external economic factors greatly influence internal warehousing processes. The most prominent challenges in warehousing environments are:
Manual Processes
Automation is a big lifesaver in warehouse environments. When a warehouse comprises mostly manual processes, efficiency and time is a big stumbling block to ensuring on-time deliveries. By implementing warehouse software system (WMS) processes, such as picking and routing, dispatch, capturing employee work hours and attendance, waybill capturing and scheduling delivery times can all be captured automatically, thereby increasing efficiency and, ultimately, leading to cost savings.
Data Accuracy
By manually capturing order numbers and product numbers as they enter and exit the warehouse, the chance of capturing incorrect data, mixing up customer orders and not ensuring that the right parcels are allocated to the correct drivers, thereby adding costs as routes are not optimised to deliveries, is greater. Warehouse software (WMS) combined with handheld scanner systems can greatly increase the accuracy of data captured in a warehouse environment.
Space and Layout
Space and layout optimisation are not only crucial for ensuring staff safety, but are also important in ensuring that products entering the warehouse are stacked according to the scheduled exit times. This makes the whole process of delivery a lot simpler and aids in instilling stricter safety policies for workers.