RFID – The Smart Phone Of Your Operation
Warehouse Management Software controls many aspects of warehouse operations, from receiving and storing items to retrieving and shipping them. You can design your warehouse to make the most of your available space, your employees’ time, and the unique storage requirements of the goods that you stock. You can structure your warehouse in almost limitless detail, so you can know exactly where everything is and the exact quantity you have on hand. This allows you to maintain a continuous flow of goods and gives you the competitive edge in delivering goods to your customers quickly and efficiently.
Increase Your ROI With A Warehouse Management System
A warehouse management system (WMS) is the backbone of day-to-day warehouse operations. WMS software applications help centralize warehouse tasks such as tracking stock locations and inventory levels. The benefits are cost savings as well as improved customer service.
Automation Technology
As your operations grow it’s important to keep pace with your expansion. By using system automation and technology KMH helps you reduce waste and maximize your bottom line. We utilize an operational audit to configure automation customized to your facility.
WMS Software Uses & Benefits
A well-designed warehouse management system integrates computer systems, material handling equipment and people into a single working system. The benefits are cost savings as well as improved customer service. There are five key benefits of a well-designed WMS. A warehouse management system (WMS) is the backbone of day-to-day warehouse operations. WMS software applications help centralize warehouse tasks such as tracking stock locations and inventory levels.
Zero Information Errors
A WMS can eliminate errors using several methods. You can maintain 100% information verification resulting in excellent tracking. Every shipping operation is system-directed, and each product will move with more accuracy, thus eliminating operator error.
Improved Information Lead Times
Lead times are improved by moving from paper based to electronic transmissions. Electronic data and radio communications used in your WMS lower lead times exponentially. A WMS brings lead times to nearly zero, contributing greatly to your bottom line. The speed of this accuracy assists in everything from faster turnaround time to plans for loading trucks, freight ratings, personnel requirements and order prioritization.
Maximize Your Team
A well-designed WMS increases your team’s productivity. It can select tasks from a queue of all pending activities and prioritize them. It can also provide feedback to the management team to assist with future planning including peak labor hours. When you ship perfect orders, your demand history is not cluttered with repeat shipments or replacement materials for incorrectly shipped items, helping to ensure that your demand history is clean. The correct WMS not only improves your perfect order rate, it can use the history to predict future demand using a “best fit” algorithm to calculate demand.
Maximize Space
A WMS can improve space utilization in your facility. The system can tell an operator where to put an item and maximize each slot for the best fit. Ensuring inventory is stored in the proper environment and used in the best order helps to minimize scrap, waste, and obsolescence. Improved record accuracy allows you to minimize safety stock, on hand quantities and lot sizes so you can achieve savings.
Improve Capacity
A WMS can improve capacity by allowing goods to move more quickly through the warehouse. A WMS provides quality information and with zero information lead time, it can allow you to reduce inventory levels. It can also use cross-docking to reduce handling and storage needs. Cross-docking can be an efficient way to achieve continuous flow throughout your operation. A WMS that can anticipate receipts, customer orders and item movements can maximize cross-docking opportunities.
Before selecting your WMS be sure the system you are considering has the right capabilities for your business. For help with selecting contact us today and we can assist you in understanding all your options.
Optimize Your Warehouse Profits in 2017
Think you’ve wrung all of the costs out of your warehousing or distribution center operation? Take another look — even in the best-run operation, there’s generally still room to cut costs. Any one of these ideas can produce thousands of dollars in savings. However, when combined into an overall cost-containment program they can often reduce costs by two, three or four times that amount.
KMH New Year’s Quick ROI Check List:
OPERATIONS
- Target inventory accuracy
- Pick a quality program and stick with it
- Know what you are up against
- Keep your processes simple
- Examine your entire supply chain
- Establish product traceability during the distribution life cycle
- Get rid of excess inventory
- Reconfigure racks
- Minimize packaging
LEVERAGE EQUIPMENT ROI
- Optimize equipment use
- Consider short-term rental
- Evaluate leasing rather than buying
LET TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU
- Consider a warehouse management system
- Take full advantage of an existing WMS
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
- Convert to high-efficiency lighting
At KMH we have a FREE Operational Audit to help you increase your ROI and show you how to implement it. Contact us to set an appointment and make 2017 your most profitable year yet!
Increase Your ROI with a WMS
WMS (Warehouse Management System) solutions have been a standard in the area of warehouse process management in enterprises for many years now. In practice, every newly constructed warehouse is launched with a WMS implemented. At KMH we give you a FREE Operation Audit to make sure we have studied every area of your business and the best ways to increase your ROI in the shortest amount of time. Your ROI (Return on Investment) is defined as a profitability ratio used to measure the effects of an investment within a specified period. Such an analysis makes it possible to identify potential areas of savings and to estimate the time needed for the return of the invested capital. We carefully demonstrate in the ROI analysis what essential actions should be made concerning your decision to implement a specific WMS solution and why.
Based on our 40+ years of experience working with customers, a WMS offers the sort of rapid ROI that might make you wonder – can I afford not to invest? At KMH we estimate customers will see a full ROI in 12 months but in some instances it is a lot less.
Ways a WMS will add value to your supply chain:
Full real-time visibility of all your stock, orders, and processes
Using a WMS allows you to gain inventory and warehouse accuracy so they can reduce safety stock levels.
Satisfy customers
Having the right product to deliver to customers at the right time and to the right place helps increase sales by reducing short ships, shipping errors, and missed deliveries.
Make the best possible use of available warehouse space
Reducing time spent locating product as a result of accurate inventory and a WMS helps with associating equipment to areas of the warehouse and appropriate work spaces.
Using a WMS allows distributors to define storage areas and bin locations in the warehouse. The system then manages product storage using the rules established for the facility. A better organized warehouse yields space savings.
Improve workforce productivity and accountability
Labor savings come in numerous forms, using a WMS delivers benefits including productivity.
Reduce wear and tear
Pallet jacks, forklift trucks, man-up trucks, and other materials handling equipment experience tremendous wear and tear. Using a WMS provides benefits such as:
- Efficient routing of activity throughout the warehouse
- Consolidated activity, such as wave order picking and zero bin cycle counts
- Associating equipment to areas of the warehouse and to appropriate work
- Managing and enabling pickup and delivery, also known as drop points
- Reducing time spent locating product as a result of accurate inventory
Call us today 888-564-7978 or please use the form below to set up a free Operation Audit so we can start helping you maximize your efficiency.
RFID – The Smart Phone of Operation
Warehouse Management Software controls many aspects of warehouse operations, from receiving and storing items to retrieving and shipping them. You can design your warehouse to make the most of your available space, your employees’ time, and the unique storage requirements of the goods that you stock. You can structure your warehouse in almost limitless detail, so you can know exactly where everything is and the exact quantity you have on hand. This allows you to maintain a continuous flow of goods and gives you the competitive edge in delivering goods to your customers quickly and efficiently.
Accuracy & Speed
With User-defined rules for stock movement and parameters for items and locations to control stock movement you have complete control over fixed and random locations for more efficient stock movement. This gives you the ability to review warehouse contents using multiple levels of detail. You can audit trail reporting of inventory movement, create a logical model of your warehouse, too.
Being able to generate an audit trail of reports for each stock movement helps you sequence your employees’ trips through the warehouse to maximize their productivity and with the ease of using it just like your smart phone you can confirm stock movement with minimal data-entry keystrokes.
First In First Out…
picking you can move your oldest inventory first using date-of-receipt tags and expiration date codes.
Units of Measure…
allow you to choose locations according to the item’s unit of measure to ensure the best fit and maximization of your available warehouse space. You can also allow the system to combine or break down units of measure to speed up inventory movement or maximize utilization of locations.
Automatic Replenishment…
of locations enable the system to monitor every location in your warehouse and can trigger stock movements to replenish your picking locations automatically when you deplete stock quantities to a point that you define.
Item Ledger…
gives you a history of all inventory movements.
Inclusion Rules…
pull up the order types (sales, purchase, and so on) and the order statuses that the system processes.
The abilities are nearly endless, we can add new functionality as your needs and business practices evolve. Call to talk with us 888-564-7978 about your ideas regarding RFID and how we can help you revolutionize your operation.