As time to market becomes paramount in the fast-changing world of e-commerce, the function of the warehouse becomes all the more critical and at the heart of that function is a capable, user friendly, adaptable warehouse management system (WMS), helped by scanning devices and paperless picking like voice and pick-to-light. The path to choosing a WMS, however, is not always an easy one, and at the end of, say, a 5-year support contract, common enough in the industry, successful ones with both parties satisfied at the contract end are far less common, claims Snapfulfill. Yet, despite some recent high profile WMS failures, the prizes for choosing well are substantial, and typically deliver a 30% improvement in warehouse productivity.
Before making any move into a WMS the choice must be made between developing one’s own package in-house or buying a package. The problem with the former is that the internal staff who developed the WMS will almost certainly move on, and so leave a business vulnerable in terms of ongoing IT support. If choosing a buy-in route then one must decide between a bespoke, focussed WMS or fully integrated suites covering every aspect of warehousing and distribution. The latter can be very difficult to set up and, according to furniture retailer Neptune’s head of operations, Matthew Talbot, who adopted the Empirica WMS from Chess: “I don’t believe an enterprise resource planning (ERP) will ever have a good WMS. You have to get the right systems and integrate them to provide what you really need.”
Regarding integration, no WMS should be disconnected from a good stock/demand forecasting program where stock flows are substantial. They are the driving force behind any supply chain planning solution and they can be tailored to many different demand patterns, periodically checking for any pattern changes and resetting themselves, if necessary. They can typically cut total stocks by one third while improving customer service, and program paybacks can sometimes be measured in just a few weeks. Yet, despite the critical role of inventory control, Britain is still woefully lacking in this vital task. “We are not good at inventory control,” says Zen Yaworsky, director of the British-based Supply Chain Academy.
There is plenty of evidence to support that claim, because poor inventory control has seen off many a household-name retailer, and seriously embarrassed many others, leaving them with bare shop shelves, sometimes following the installation of a new computerised system which proved disastrous. Britain’s poor inventory showing is hardly surprising given that 20% of UK businesses have no sales and operational planning recognizable processes in place, with only 10% having excellent S&OP. Nor does it help when demand for qualified logisticians also far outstrips supply.
There are plenty of stock/demand forecasting programs on the market, some better than the others, but the most effective ones, like those for the food/drink and clothing industries, are those that react in real time to changes in forecast weather conditions or other germane factors. This is critical because a pending heat wave can send demand for drinks soaring four-fold in a matter of days. It is also important to forecast more often and quicker.
An extra problem is posed by JIT deliveries to warehouses. Having the slickest WMS in the world is not much use if some disastrous event the other side of the world halts supplies to the warehouse. This is why it is so important to have a robust disaster recovery plan in place before a disruptive event. The Japanese tsunami of 2011 exposed just how serious disregard of this ‘law’ was in terms of billions of pounds in lost sales and profits.
Comments are closed.