17 October 2021 Here is the translated text: Get to know the WMS system, its features, the benefits, when to implement it in your company, and how to choose the best provider. Logistics is one of the key points for the success of any business, as it is an operation directly related to customer service, as well as managing an important part of the company’s active capital (stocked products). The more effective the supply chain management, the more chances a company has to ensure customer satisfaction, reduce operating costs, and increase profits. But achieving this efficiency is not so simple. In many cases, when the correct resources are not used, a lot of time and money is wasted. This is why specific technologies exist to help managers in this challenge, and one of the most relevant in the field of intralogistics is WMS, a warehouse management software. With the system, processes are now automated, increasing the speed of order processing and reducing errors. The implementation of WMS in a warehouse can be considered an investment with an immediate return to the business, as we will illustrate in detail in the following topics. Through this article, you will learn about the main challenges faced by a logistics manager, understand what WMS is, its features, how it helps in management work, the benefits generated for the operation as a whole, and also when it is necessary to implement it in your company. Take the opportunity to delve into this topic and prepare to transform your business! Challenges of Logistics Management Controlling thousands of products and monitoring employee work is a great challenge that requires not only technical knowledge but also preparation to lead people, strategic vision to develop an efficient and economical distribution plan, and the ability to make important decisions under pressure because the operation cannot stop. All these skills are important for the manager to be able to achieve goals aimed at making the business more profitable. Among these, we can mention: • Achieving the ideal stock level, that is, reducing the amount of stock of a particular product (to reduce storage costs), without missing any for prompt delivery; • Making the best use of the warehouse’s physical space, seeking strategic positions for each product, in order to reduce movements and speed up separation and shipping; • Optimizing employee work, looking for ways to manage activities, avoid idleness, and monitor their performance; • Making intelligent use of machinery and equipment to reduce costs; • Reducing human errors, as they can cause problems both in customer service and in warehouse financial management; • Speeding up end-to-end intralogistics operations, ensuring the perfect order in the shortest possible time; • Counting on high product traceability and warehouse security, so you can monitor the movement of goods, detect any losses or damages, and achieve efficiency in routine inspections and quality control; • Increasing inventory accuracy, which means that the physical inventory is always compatible with the inventory in the system. Addressing all these goals is not a simple task, and we can say that the complexity increases as the logistics activity becomes more intense – when the company works with a large quantity and variety of goods, when it has more than one warehouse, receives from different suppliers, fulfills hundreds or thousands of orders a day, etc. In these cases, having accurate and reliable inventory information – what and how many products are in the warehouse, their conditions, and their location – is crucial to making the right decisions that will grow the business and generate profits. And it is worth remembering that this data must be centralized in one place and, at the same time, be accessible to all workers, from all areas of the warehouse. So how should the manager act? The first step to achieving warehouse organization, stock security, and process productivity is to have a specific management software for warehouses, the WMS (Warehouse Management System). The WMS is responsible not only for centralizing all information about intralogistics operations but also for automating activities, always seeking the best use of warehouse resources (people, equipment, and area). It is a system created precisely to facilitate stock management for industries, logistics operators, wholesalers, retailers, and e-commerce, so having this technology will make a difference in your company’s logistics. What does a WMS system do? This is a recurring question. Everyone knows that WMS is specific software for intralogistics, but many do not know how it works at each stage of the process, from receiving goods to shipping. Basically, the WMS makes all activities more agile and efficient, generating important metrics for monitoring, performance evaluation, and planning future actions. With the WMS, the manager is sure that the entire operation is coordinated and tracked, as it is the system that “pulls the tasks” and not the people, which greatly prevents the occurrence of human errors. Every time an order arrives at the warehouse, the WMS comes into action, defining who will perform each activity (based on their role, availability, and equipment used) and monitoring their performance by connecting to mobile devices (RF collectors, smartphones, etc.). Every action taken by an employee, whether it is transferring from the receiving area to storage, separating goods for an order, or shipping, is recorded through the bi-page of the product barcodes and their addresses. This makes it easier to track each item and its location, ensuring fast and accurate separation (picking) and following the work of each operator. When accessing the WMS from a computer or mobile device, the manager will have access to a series of features and information that will facilitate management. In the system, it is possible to access data on purchase orders, incoming, transfers, movement, outgoing, delivery, quality control, inventory, among others. In this way, it is possible to closely monitor order fulfillment (whether they are on time or delayed), storage, replenishment, and movement orders, picking waves, picker performance, operator checkout performance, the address and status of each stored product, in addition to a series of other information that will allow you to control everything that happens in the warehouse. It is worth adding that the WMS works in harmony with the ERP, meaning that information reaches the ERP, goes through the WMS, and returns to the ERP. This way, logistics is fully integrated with other sectors of the company, ensuring greater efficiency and internal organization. Function Guide In which processes is the WMS present? As mentioned in the previous topic, the WMS acts from receipt to shipment of goods. Check out the most relevant gains in each process: Receiving – Reduction of waiting times for carriers and management of yard handling (entry and exit of vehicles). – Registration of all received goods and their characteristics (quantity per box, batch, expiration date, serial number, etc.). – Automation of item control, batch control, and quality control. – Control of minimum validity for reception (Shelf life). – Control of losses/failures/faults. – Reverse logistics management. – Generation of labels with complete product information. Storage – Definition of the best address for each product based on user-defined rules (address suggestion). – Dynamic memory. – Stock rotation through picking, always keeping the picking areas replenished. – Control of space (occupied and free) and stock defragmentation. – Alerts on the need for new purchases. – Division of tasks based on available resources. Picking – Creation of picking lists based on predefined criteria. – Multiple picking processes (discrete, by wave, by zone, by batch, by volumes, in two stages, with confirmation, goods to person, crossdocking, etc.). – Monitoring of the picking process by load, wave, order, item, or customer. – Replenishment via Kanban. – Stock turnover (by FIFO, FEFO, LIFO, LEFO, or predefined specific rules). Packing/Shipping – Cubage: determination of the ideal box for shipping. – Grouping of volumes. – Checkout/electronic order verification at departure. – Load formation and separation of goods according to the common region of recipients. Management – Provision of ideal inventory models for both routine quality controls and monitoring of warehouse movements. – Control of product expiration dates, losses, and lead time. – Alerts on the need to replace raw materials or products. – Error notifications, allowing for quick correction. – Availability of real-time operating indicators (Sight Management). How a WMS system helps managers in their daily lives In the previous topic, you learned about the main features of WMS at each stage of the intralogistics operation, and now, to have an even greater dimension of how the system helps the manager in their work, we provide you with a list of challenges and how WMS solves them. Challenge: increasing order processing capacity Solution: by automating operations, the WMS significantly speeds up the processes of control, storage, picking, and other product movements in the warehouse. With this, it is possible to significantly increase order processing capacity. Challenge: improving space occupation Solution: WMS automatically defines which address the product should be directed to. The system checks the product registration and the address registration, associating them and indicating the most appropriate location based on the characteristics of each product. In addition to indicating addresses at entry, the WMS manages the entire position transfer process (dynamic addressing), always aiming at space optimization. Challenge: reducing times for picking and moving goods Solution: this is one of the biggest challenges of a logistics operation and can be made simple with the support of WMS. The system calculates the best route the product should follow to reduce the movement of goods in the warehouse and optimize separation. It is also possible to intelligently group orders. Another advantage is the active call: for each new request, the WMS emits a sound alert in the operator’s data collector, directing them to the action they must take at that moment. With the active call, activities are performed on time, with priority, and with the right resources. Challenge: managing the workload of operators Solution: The WMS tracks the entire work of operators, generating reports always available to managers. Challenge: improving product verification at checkout Solution: WMS ensures that the customer will receive exactly the product ordered. Thanks to features like barcode standardization, the conference is no longer manual, subject to errors, and becomes automated. The only task of the operator will be to receive the commands given by the system, beep the product, and bring it to the exit dock. With efficiency in the process, the customer is much more satisfied. Challenge: controlling malfunctions Solution: WMS identifies damaged products, with expired dates or close to expiration. And everything is notified so that the manager can remove them from circulation. Challenge: reducing errors Solution: WMS is not error-tolerant. When products are entered into the CD, the system allows for blind verification: the controller counts the units without knowing what is on the invoice. Subsequently, the system is registered, and the manager can access this information, viewing discrepancies that are automatically detected. In the picking process, the different modes allowed by the WMS software, combined with active call standardization, kanban, and barcodes, greatly reduce the chances of failure. In addition, with mobile solutions (dashboard and notifications), faults or deviations are identified in advance, in time to be avoided. Challenge: monitoring all processes and issuing reports Solution: WMS provides a series of indicators, dashboards, and BI that make warehouse monitoring much easier. And all this data is accessible from any mobile device (smartphones and tablets). In this way, the manager has all the necessary information to make decisions at their fingertips, literally. How WMS helps companies gain a competitive advantage The WMS system was created to improve intralogistics management as a whole, generating direct and indirect gains, allowing the company to better serve its customers and gain a competitive advantage over competitors. This is because, with the system, warehouse resources are used intelligently, providing not only a reduction in costs but also greater operational efficiency. And efficiency translates into a satisfied customer. Discover the gains generated by WMS: – Greater reliability of warehouse information; – Better use of physical space; – Increased productivity; – Greater speed in order fulfillment and merchandise replenishment (avoids stockouts); – Greater inventory accuracy; – Greater inventory traceability (easily verifiable operation); – Greater control of product entry and exit, including traceability of goods after shipment (easy recall); – Improved return management; – Greater security and fewer losses; – Better management thanks to more performance indicators. By increasing its productivity, the company can fulfill more orders per day, increasing its earnings and, better yet, relying on technology to use resources strategically to reduce costs. That’s why, as we said at the beginning of this text, with WMS the return on investment is almost immediate. When to use a WMS? If your company is growing and you don’t have a WMS, it’s time to think about implementing it. Additionally, if you work in retail and want to expand into e-commerce, it is important to have a WMS to ensure that your warehouse can meet multichannel demands, serving all customers well. Another situation you might face is over-hiring employees to meet demands, and with the WMS, the operation could be automated, eliminating the need to rely on more labor. Manually performing all activities, in addition to slowing down processes, also leaves room for errors, which means higher costs for the company. The absence of a system also leads to management difficulties, as it is not possible to access real-time indicators. If this is your case, consider having a WMS so you can have reliable data and make more assertive decisions. In short: if your perspective is to improve processes and increase sales while reducing your operation’s costs, you need support software. How to choose the best provider This is an issue faced by many managers when evaluating the options available on the market and choosing the one that best suits their reality. In this case, we refer to a speech by professors Dale Rogers (Internet Edge Supply Chain Lab, Arizona State University) and Frank Straube (Head of the Supply Chain Department, Technical University Berlin) during the XXV ILOS Forum. According to the two researchers and supply chain specialists, the move companies have made to innovate with speed is to collaborate with local and more agile software providers. For Rogers and Straube, companies should look for providers that are on their same horizon. In addition to evaluating the RPF (Request for Proposal) of the WMS, checking if the system has all the features your company needs, it is important to consider some points: – Does the provider have a well-defined project methodology? – Have the provider’s clients already achieved significant results? How was ROI achieved from the projects? – Does the provider have extensive experience in logistics and technology? – Does the supplying company have flexibility, transparency, and a good relationship with its clients? – Is the support provided by the provider agile and meets your expectations? What communication channels are available? Remember: knowing the work of the company providing the solution is as important or more important than analyzing the product they offer you! If you want to know more about how WMS helps with inventory control, click here. WMS: Discover Everything About the System That Brings Efficiency and Security to Logistics Deagor WMS per ecommerce può aiutarti!