Functions and Importance of a Warehouse Management System in Warehousing Operations

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Functions and Importance of a Warehouse Management System in Warehousing Operations - Initially, warehouse management systems can only provide simple storage locations, even though in reality they have very complex data that requires special staff to run them.

No matter how simple or complex the application is, the main purpose of a warehouse management system remains the same, which is to provide the information needed by management to efficiently control the movement of materials in a warehouse.

In the end, the end goal is to increase profits, and we cannot achieve more profit simply by selling more products, but also by selling products faster, more accurately and earning more profit from satisfied customers.

To run warehouse operations properly, good warehouse management is needed. This is where it is important to understand and implement a warehouse management system (WMS).

3 Functions and Important of WMS

Following are the 3 Functions and Importance of a Warehouse Management System in Warehousing Operations, namely:

1. To Improve Stock Accuracy

Stock accuracy is a very important factor, and it is a challenge for the warehouse head to achieve it. Items that are stocked out cause delays in order fulfillment and ultimately lead to loss of profit, but spending more to store stocks and transportation will also harm profits.

With the Warehouse Management System, you can use Real-Time Stock Monitoring to do various things, including:

Make predictions
Calculating how many products to produce
Identify areas of activity that have no added value
Help reduce losses through stock rotation
Minimizing costs incurred from stocks that are expired, lost, or damaged.

You can also get a tremendous advantage in operational efficiency by accurately knowing the location of stock, and the number of products available (you can know when the expiration date, or the location of the product), and when the stock needs to be replenished.

2. To Improve Stock Management

To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of stock use, both for production needs and sales orders, warehouse operators need to check which stocks must be issued first (according to the expiration date) and which can be used for the next batch.

But it requires competent staff to operate it. With WMS, you can use the Directed Stock Releasing feature, where the WMS system will direct you to pick up products based on FIFO or FEFO to a certain location without needing to know in advance whether the product is available in a certain location, when is the expiration date, or how many quantities of the product are available.

The features of this system also collaborate with the Stock Booking and Releasing features, where the system will mark which products have been booked first so that the fulfillment of one sales order will not overlap with the fulfillment of other sales orders.

3. To Increase Warehouse Space Utilization

A warehouse is an aspect that costs a lot for the company, starting from the cost of renting land, buildings, machinery, labor, and all goods stored in the warehouse, if added together, it will accumulate to a very large number.

With Directed Put-Away at WMS, companies can reduce costs and increase warehouse efficiency by maximizing space utilization, ensuring that products can be stored as much as possible with the most optimal space settings. WMS can determine the right location to put the product, either in one or several locations.

By using the information on the number of goods to be received and their expiration date, the system will look for locations with the same expiration date (in the default configuration, in one location must be stored products that have the same expiration date, but this logic can be configured) and have adequate space.

To support the Warehouse Management System, you must pay attention to and optimize the following:

a. Real-Time Stock Monitoring

WMS Provides real-time stock monitoring (based on the product, location, and expiration date) whenever the user needs it.

b. Location Management

Can determine the product location layout design strategy for any warehouse layout. Location management

c. Barcode System

Reduces manual data input and the risk of typos (scanning data with a barcode is much faster than typing).

d. Product Expiry Date

Management product expiry date management Improve efficient product management by adopting First-In-First-Out (ensuring stock is issued based on the date of receipt of goods in each warehouse).

e. Receiving & Put Away

Blind receiving (can make multiple receipts of goods for one Delivery Order) and speeding up the put-away process by calculating the space requirements or available capacity and storing the product on the same day as the receipt of the goods (Directed Put Away).

f. Stock Management

Inventory management Booking and stock releases, and directed stock releases by FIFO or FEFO, and allows the transfer of stock from one location to another or between warehouses.

g. Picking

Integrated with Renotech Picking and Handheld devices (barcode system), which makes the picking process more efficient and effective.

h. Delivery Order

With ASN, the recipient of the goods can receive information if there is a difference between the product being sent and the one that should be received according to the delivery order. Delivery Orders can be grouped based on sales orders, the same shipping route, or other mechanisms.

Thank you for visiting and reading the articles on my blog. Hopefully, this article was useful and can increase your knowledge in warehousing management.

reference: https://www.renotech.co.id/