Monday 21 March 2011

The push factor for a better handling system for your Warehouse/DC

You may think why do I need a better handling system for my warehouse or distribution system as the following criteria has not clocked in yet :
a)    Company turnover less than RM1 billion
b)    Having less than 20 outlets/stores (total outlets sizes about 100,000 sq ft)
c)     Is cheaper to employ workers and  manpower retraining is easy
d)    Everyday logistic, administrative, handling , inventory and others problems can be resolved at finger tips
e)    Late/wrong delivery and customer dissatisfaction are manageable
f)     I am not a listed company, nobody to be answerable to on expansion plan
The advantages of finding a good track record Logistic Sortation Warehouse solutions provider is he is able to understand your business correctly, study your operation well, understand your need/requirement and tailor made a solution to your needs. Regardless of  what business or industry you are managing, a basic motto you believe is ‘ Quick deliverance of goods, Lowest cost of operation and Accuracy’    
Most managers might feedback automation adds zero value to the products, it might add extra cost to operation if not fully utilised the system and maintenance cost will definitely moving up.  You are used to traditional manual processing your work, but at certain point it is getting harder to cope with, the following reasons might u turn your decision to implement automation :
1)   Shipping cost/item increased. This increment in cost is from receiving, storage, order picking, replenishment  and shipping. To put it simply, if you need to handle a major activity/handling with more than one labour transaction, you are probably wasting labour. For example, a manual warehouse process an order, instruct order picker with a cart, moving around storage area to select goods. Once done , a senior will need to check for error in picking , consolidate the batches, box it , build a pallet and organise for delivery truck
How about demand increase or manpower shortage , can you still achieve the above motto of quick and accurate deliverance

2)   Your returns are increasing. Handling returns goods is tedious and inefficient as they require a lot of   manual labour to support.  Thus, if you notice that your return bay is requiring more attention to handle and negative customer feedback due to inaccurate shipments. This cause might be associated with the order picking process.  By implementing a pick to light or voice picking system, not only does productivity increase compared to paper-based picking, but accuracy does as well.
3)  Your inventory accuracy is getting worse.  It doesn’t matter if you conduct regular stock count and reconcile     the results and you still have an inaccurate inventory data. You can implement a low level warehouse management system (WMS) that won’t cost you a bomb. This system is able to tie the receiving inventory, order management and stock movement accurately     
4) Your warehouse is getting messier and more disorganized.  If you are embarrassed to walk your boss around the warehouse, or if you are the boss and you are embarrassed to walk a customer around your warehouse, then you might want to consider ways to tidy things up.
Frequently when warehouse managers face this issue, the answer is to acquire more floor space by either facility expansion or actually moving locations.  This is often not necessary and sometimes, by reconfiguring the warehouse to utilize more of the cubic vertical space, some of the floor space can be recaptured and freed up for other operations.  Cubic space utilization can vary by using simple means such as static storage rack or a mezzanine or it can become more complex through ceiling supported conveyors and multi-level pick modules.  By taking advantage of all of the open space in your facility and maintaining a disciplined routine of tidiness, you will not only be more productive, but also add pride to your work

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