A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a foundation for improved operational efficiency, providing a series of building blocks that will act as a basis for efficient warehousing operations. Today we will look at one of the primary building blocks a WMS provides; Improved inventory record accuracy and the reduction in data processing errors that result […]
Along with the tangible and intangible characteristics, a benefit should be measured on management’s general level of responsiveness to the benefit. […]
For some companies, justification in a WMS is a matter of survival. Having the right material available at the right place and at the right time is no longer enough. […]
A good warehouse operations strategy is to use these exception processes as a chance to improve the operations and minimize the potential of these exceptions from reoccurring. […]
Directed put-away removes the routine and tedious decision making tasks from operators allowing them to be more productive. A good warehouse management system (WMS) should allow management to define various put-away rules the computer will use when determining the best put-away location. […]
Last month we introduced a few ways to store small items including custom made dividers, plastic dividers on small beam racking, traditional small bin shelving and rotabins. This month we provide a few more small items storage ideas and end with a general comparison. […]
In an earlier blog we discussed ABC profiles and cube movement distribution. Through this analysis you should be able to determine if products are frequently ordered together. If you do see a significant correlation between products, consider storing the products together to help reduce overall travel time per pick tour. If the pick correlation frequency […]
A straight-forward way to improve pick labor productivity is to eliminate the travel back and forth to the office and the shipping/packaging areas between order picks. One way to accomplish this is to have one operator pick multiple orders at the same time, or Cluster Pick, if possible. […]
A basic principle to optimizing warehouse space is evaluating and selecting the most space efficient storage equipment. Using more dense storage equipment is a key factor to reduce space requirements. […]
Paying attention to the fastest selling items to make sure they are located in the most advantageous picking position will generate significant labor cost savings. If available space is a concern, slotting will also help improve storage utilization by focusing on the slowest movers to see if their assigned bin space can be reduced. […]