UK inflation has finally reached its lowest level since 2021. Interest rates could be cut in the coming months, increasing business confidence and investment levels. Is this a sign that now is a good time to consider a warehouse management system (WMS) solution? We think so, and here’s why.
Increased consumer spending means more goods are being ordered online. More orders mean busier warehouses. Busy warehouses need automated systems to streamline their core picking and packing processes. It’s what we describe as ‘scaling for success’ and it means that whenever there is a busy period, or as the business expands, warehouse processes will always run smoothly. Every day is like business as usual.
A WMS is a key piece in this logistics jigsaw. It ensures that stock sold is put into the right location. It helps operatives to batch pick hundreds of orders simultaneously, which is critical for e-commerce. At some of our customer sites, their operations become so slick after implementing a WMS, Black Friday’s ‘busyness’ looks like a non-event.
How does Indigo’s WMS support the batch picking of hundreds of orders at once? When stock is batch picked, one person is responsible for gathering all the relevant stock items in a picking trolley and then bringing it to a central sorting bench for onward processing. Our software sorts thousands of SKU items based on shared attributes in the order they need to be picked and it supports the adoption of multiple picking styles.
This allows users to easily separate orders that can be grouped together logically. As a rule of thumb, any order containing more than six items is most efficiently picked in batch – you could have 60 orders with six items in each one. Less than six items and it is probably more efficient to be picking the items sequentially.
Imagine how difficult it is to manually collate hundreds of picking documents for large orders in the warehouse. An operative physically needs to work through these documents multiple times, grouping items together by shared attributes. This requires a large amount of product knowledge to be able to identify similarities and assess the relevant stock locations. Grouping items together using pick notes manually is a massive overhead and there is always a danger that the wrong items end up in an order.
What often happens in practice is that a company can only cope without using a WMS for so long before their systems collapse under the strain of fulfilling all their orders. If your company is processing 50 or so orders a day, it is probably fine to be managing without technology, but once levels start to rise into the hundreds, a WMS becomes necessary. Otherwise the business becomes completely overwhelmed. From a technology and communications point of view, they cannot keep up with demand.
Whatever your industry sector, having an efficient warehouse operation is always essential. Indigo Software specialises in supporting growing businesses, helping them to streamline and optimise their warehouse operations with a best of breed WMS
Comments are closed.