The warehouse is a big ticket asset with expensive running costs. Logistics managers typically strive to improve efficiencies while also reducing costs. That can seem impossible at times but it’s just like the old adage about the best way to eat an elephant – one bite at a time. Small increments do add up to worthwhile improvements over time and one initiative can often lead to an unexpected positive spinoff that was not foreseen. Here is a simple four step plan to get you started:

A good Warehouse Management System should be capable of doing far more than just keeping tabs on stock levels, although doing that accurately and in real time is a critical function. No doubt, your organisation is taking advantage of the most important functionality to maximise its ROI.

lementing a Warehouse Management System that does what you need can greatly enhance productivity and throughout as well as reducing wastefulness that costs money. It enhances customer satisfaction and employee morale and provides a management window into the state of health of one of the more impenetrable and expensive cost centres of a manufacturing or distribution operation.

The King of Egypt 4,000 years ago would have asked “How much grain do we have in storage?” Heads would have rolled if he could not get a reasonably accurate answer (grain lasts about 4 years in good storage).

The Egyptians had a simple WMS based on stock inwards and outwards, transfers and wastage, recorded on clay tablets or on the walls of their granaries. Any type of storage facility simply has to have a warehouse management system, WMS or otherwise it is nothing more than a disorganised asset dump.

A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software application used to monitor and control warehouse operations and materials right from the point they are received into the warehouse, when they are stored, and finally to when they reach the end-customer.

There is a vast range of commercial WMS applications available. It can be a confusing choice for a small business, especially as many platforms might seem to be designed for large companies. 

If you’re a small business with a limited operation, can you take advantage of a WMS? In our experience, yes you can. Businesses of any size can see huge gains in efficiency and reductions in costs by implementing a good warehouse management system.

Implementing a suitable warehouse management system is the most important thing you can do to improve the efficiency of your operation and cut your running costs. However, all the main WMS systems rely on you having an organised system of barcoding. Without barcodes, you won’t be able to use a WMS to its full potential to improve efficiency and accuracy.

So the very first thing for a warehousing business to do is to review how you currently use barcodes and if this can be tightened up. Although barcodes have been used for decades in retail and logistics, many warehouses still do not make full use of this useful labelling system. In this article we will briefly look at how implementing a barcode system in your warehouse can cut operating costs, while simultaneously paving the way to implement a WMS.

For a small business with a single warehouse there is huge pressure on your team to deliver cost-effective logistics and inventory management. For established businesses, you may have a time tested set of procedures and a warehouse team who have been with you for many years. This may work well for you at the moment, but does your current way of working equip your business for growth and change, does it rely on the knowledge in peoples’ heads, and is it as efficient as it could be? In a competitive and rapidly evolving marketplace, businesses with the flexibility to optimise and improve their warehouse processes are better positioned to save costs and secure new customers – pushing them ahead of their competitors.

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) helps you optimise your supply chain by improving control of your warehouse and logistics processes. There are many sound reasons to invest in a WMS, which we have discussed elsewhere on this blog. However, the question we will address in this article is how a warehouse management system works for you and how it uses this basis to affect positive changes throughout your operation.

After reading our previous article, on the 'benefits of a warehouse management system', you may have begun to consider the improvements a WMS can make in your warehouse and supply chain. But what about implementing the system? Implementing such a wide ranging and important system as a WMS comes with its fair share of risk, if it is not properly planned. At many different points, something can go wrong that risks derailing or delaying the process, costing you money and lost productivity.

Before you consider implementing your new WMS, or even before you start shopping around seriously, it helps to have a draft implementation roadmap in place so that all the stakeholders in your business can go into the process with confidence.