WMS and picking list
This is a continuation from the previous article, looking at WMS.
The centre of a warehouse management system is obviously the storage facility itself. What you have physically available to sell is the most important resource you have. In a perfect world goods would be received, and then sent out, and what is left is your actual stock levels. That rarely happens as mistakes occur with counting of goods in, stuff gets lost or damaged or units of measure are not understood (bring in a box of candles, but actually put as 6 candles in a box). That is why constant stocktakes are required to keep everything in check. In spite of these variables, you will still have a verly good idea of what you have, within certain thresholds, and this is when a warehouse management system comes into its own. The real benefit of these systems is what you can do with stock whilst it is in your possession.
Plan route for picking list.
A simple one is the ability to organise stock in such a way, as to provide an efficient path to pick items as quickly as possible. Amazon does this on steroids, as their computer systems are highly geared so that an employee can collect all the items for dispatch within a predetermined time. This is mission critical for them as that allows them to keep the volume of stock they have (minimum 100,000 square feet) and still provide a fast delivery service. Most businesses are run on a smaller scale, but the same principle applies.
Organising stock in your warehouse.
If you keep a system of rows, then aisles (Row A, aisle1) then you can store standard items in dedicated “bins”. If logically laid out, you can then get stock to be stored in order. Large items at the beginning and smaller items towards the end makes it easier to stack into a trolley. Once that is set up then you can leverage the warehouse layout to your advantage. One straight forward thing I did for a client was to reorder a picking list so it was in Bin number order. A pick list is based on a sales order from a client and tells the picker what has to be removed from the shelves, and in what quantity is ready for despatch. Having this in the same order as the aisle layout meant they could cross off each item in order walking one way down the aisle rather than criss crossing back and forwards looking for things. This saves at least half the time then when the form was in product number order.
Another example from a client of mine as they store all their chilled items close to the despatch area and the glass objects further away. This allows them to load the chilled stuff first so it’s close to the refrigerator unit and bottles last so it minimises damage during transport.
There are a myriad of ways to leverage the physical space, work processes and software to make the most of what you have. Certainly in these times of stretched supply chains, erratic exchange rates and cost of living pressures, an efficient WMS is required now more than ever.
Next in the series: What happens when you run of stock, back ordering and split orders.
About the Author:
Malcolm Ford has been involved with ERP implementations for the past full 10 years and has assisted companies to digitise their stock movements for a variety of sectors. If you have specific need please raise your enquires to the email above.
