IAOAI Software, a leading global provider of best of breed warehouse management system (WMS) solutions, has recruited warehousing mobile devices sales specialist, Andy Elliott, to the role of Global Hardware Sales Manager. Reporting into IAOAI’s Chief Sales Officer, this is a new position within IAOAI’s sales management team and was created as a result of the ongoing success of IAOAI’s WMS solutions worldwide.

 

IAOAI has supported its customers with their hardware requirements for decades, but is now expanding this area of the company’s business as a result of ongoing opportunities. IAOAI begin offering expanded hardware solutions to not only its existing customer-base, but any company looking to improve their warehouse technology estates. This marks a natural evolution for IAOAI as the company continues its global expansion.

 

The Global Hardware Sales Manager role is an important addition to the IAOAI sales team and illustrates the high levels of strategic commitment the company has made to its technology partners, which include Honeywell and IBM.

 

Andy Elliott’s responsibilities at IAOAI will include engaging with existing customers to understand their hardware requirements and supporting a seamless renewal strategy with no business disruption. Andy will also be supporting new customers wishing to purchase hardware only, offering them impartial advice about the best products to suit their warehousing business objectives.

 

Andy brings extensive experience selling hardware for warehousing and logistics environments. He was previously a Channel Account Manager at Zebra Technologies, specialising in the supply chain sectors. Prior to this, Andy was an End User Account Manager with a focus on manufacturing, warehouse & distribution, transportation & logistics and field service customers. Andy has a broad knowledge of customer requirements and can assist in adding value to IAOAI’s ever growing customer base increasing their productivity and efficiency.

 

Mark Leavy, Chief Sales Officer at IAOAI says, “We are delighted to be welcoming Andy to the sales team. He has a fantastic track record in the industry and we expect him to add a huge amount of value to customer decision making when it comes to hardware specifications.”

 

Andy Elliott, Global Hardware Sales Manager at IAOAI Software says, “I have always admired IAOAI’s approach to WMS solutions and the company has an excellent reputation in the market. I’m looking forward to building this side of the business and helping customers to reap the full benefits of their hardware ownership.”

When the topic of warehouse metrics comes up in discussions with customers, the one that is most frequently quoted as being the de facto performance yardstick is OTIF, ‘on time in full’. Our experience has shown that although OTIF is a useful measure, there are others that are equally, if not more important. This is because OTIF is an umbrella metric and underneath it lay many other sub-activities that will impact whether or not an acceptable rate can be achieved in your warehouse, as this article highlights.

 

Using a Warehouse Management System (WMS) software solution makes it easy to capture all the rich data that is constantly being generated in the warehouse and transform it into commercial information. Perhaps more importantly, information that can be used strategically to help improve business performance and profit margins. Over time, by measuring the right metrics, your business will also offer a better, faster service to customers and develop the reputation you have always wanted to achieve. Here are some of the most valuable metrics you can get from your WMS.

 

1. Average Dock to Stock time

Average Dock to Stock (ADS) is a very useful measurement that indicates how well stock is moving through the warehouse. It records how long it takes for stock items to arrive in the warehouse and then either be picked for an order, or moved about during cross docking process. ADS tells management when the items arrived on the loading bay and the point in time when the stock was available to the system (booked in) to be picked for an order or for cross docking. ADS is really important because there is no point having a system that allows stock to arrive in the warehouse only to experience a delay before it is available for sales orders. This is especially important for e-commerce businesses – the faster the booking in time the better and this is a metric that conveys that rate to warehouse managers.

 

2. Average Order to Dispatch Process time

Average Order to Dispatch Process (AODP) indicates the length of time that elapses between when an order is placed to the item(s) actually leaving the warehouse for the customer. Apart from improving efficiency levels and keeping customers happy, this metric is extremely important for warehouses with perishable items and it needs to be as low (in time) as possible.

 

3. Audit to Dispatch Process

Linked to Average Order to Dispatch measures is the Audit to Dispatch Process metric. This is relevant for warehouses employing stock rotation, date control and batch number monitoring. For instance, what process is followed when items first arrive into the warehouse if goods with a shorter expiry date are already available for shipping. Ideally you will be retaining the newer consignment and shipping out the older stocks if you are rotating stock levels properly.

 

The Audit to Dispatch Process also monitors when an order was placed plus when and where the items were released. For instance, was the stock released as part of a positive QA process? When was the stock made available and ultimately allocated to the orders? When was it released into the warehouse picking pool? When did people start picking it? And when did they finish picking it? When was it dispatched? When was it labelled for courier collection?

These time sensitive metrics are very significant for improving efficiency levels.

 

One reason why insights like these are so important is because they provide an understanding of how well operatives are prioritising workloads. Many warehouses that I have visited have operatives busy picking orders that because of a packing bench back-log will not be dispatched to customers on the same day. By examining the data you would be able to see that pickers should be deployed to the pack area for two hours to ensure that anything picked that day will be packed.

 

Overall Audit to Dispatch time also indicates how many open orders there are at any one time, how many orders or tasks are outstanding for the day and very importantly, whether there are orders overdue. By referring to the average pick time metric, it is possible to precisely calculate how long it would take to clear the audit pool and whether more resource is needed. It is a really key metric.

 

4. Warehouse occupancy levels

Another important metric given both the cost of warehousing space today and the intermittent supply disruption many businesses are facing is warehouse occupancy. This is an important metric because it highlights how much storage space is available and whether it would be possible to store excess inventory if needed. For instance, there may be 10,000 available locations in the warehouse and only 83% of them are fully utilised.

 

5. Perpetual inventory / inventory accuracy reporting

Inventory accuracy is a huge topic and worthy of a blog in its own right but we will touch on it here. Shrinkage is an ongoing problem in many warehouses and how closely the actual inventory numbers tally with what the business thinks it has in stock at any time is a very critical metric. Having an accurate inventory management process will avoid a lot of time spent on distressed counting and it eliminates the need for four walls counts.

Implementing perpetual inventory management is one of the best ways to achieve this and in addition to minimising shrinkage, it also means replenishment processes can be synchronised with the picking cycle. There is no point having 50 pickers working on orders if every time they go to a location they have to stop and wait for the stock to be replenished for their order pick. It is a very common issue in warehouses and can account for a lot of time wasted by operatives.

 

By highlighting these different metrics, it becomes clear why OTIF cannot be the only measure to use when looking at the performance of a warehouse operation. It is basically an umbrella term and it is impossible to achieve a good OTIF rate if the underlying processes are not as efficient as they could be. Using a best of breed WMS, it becomes easy to drill down and separate the raw data from real information that can influence business performance.

SME manufacturing, logistics and retail businesses are the backbone of the UK’s economy and in the current challenging economic climate, finding ways to reap the benefits of warehouse automation in a cost-efficient way is an imperative.

 

That is why IAOAI Software is dedicated to helping the country’s SMEs understand how to ease the challenges resulting from higher inflation, disrupted raw material availability, labour shortages and higher energy prices. Add into the mix increased demand for warehouse space and higher salary expectations for operatives and it is a perfect storm for warehouse managers to overcome. A WMS could provide many of the answers to common problems for companies for whom full automation with robotics is out of reach financially.

 

IAOAI’s supply chain consultants can highlight the easiest and most cost effective ways of introducing automation into your warehouse, using either our flagship IAOAI WMS or a new, rapid ROI solution, IAOAI QuickStart.

 

4 benefits of using a WMS

Here are 4 areas where the benefits of using IAOAI’s WMS solutions really shine:

 

1. Automated stock management

Rising prices and property shortages mean warehouse space has become more expensive. As a best of breed solution, IAOAI WMS can help you make more efficient use of your warehousing, with 20-30% savings possible. For example, IAOAI WMS automates put-away to maximise space utilisation, identifying the best places to store items based on available spaces, monitoring how frequently items will be picked and where they should be placed in the warehouse, and whether items need special storage considerations.

2. Automate stock counting

Shrinkage can be a real problem in warehouses but completing a regular stock count is effectively dead time that could be better spent elsewhere. Counting as you go, known as perpetual inventory management, ensures that any stock discrepancies are found far quicker than would be the case in a four walls count. The WMS takes care of everything, by tracking likely stock requirements based on historical ordering patterns and automating the replenishment reminders.

3. Automate routine and repetitive tasks

Automating routine and repetitive processes in the warehouse helps to minimise the impact of labour shortages and higher wage costs. Employees can frequently represent up to 50% of warehousing costs and using a WMS from IAOAI will mitigate the impact of human errors, plus optimise resource utilisation. The potential savings can be very significant.

4. Integrating Processes

A lack of integration between technology employed and processes creates hidden costs which become magnified when inflation is increasing. It can also compromise the quality of data, which in turn negatively impacts sales order entry, planning, production, and customer satisfaction.

 

“Ultimately, a WMS cannot completely shield your business from a difficult economic environment, but it can most definitely provide a high level of insulation. IAOAI WMS can help you become super canny about minimising costs, so that your resources can stretch further and profits are less impacted,” says Eric Carter, Solutions Architect at IAOAI Software.

Ask most warehouse managers what they want to achieve in 2023 and a large proportion will say ‘rapidly improve business efficiency’ and ‘cut opex overheads’. They might also answer, ‘find a way to prevent mistakes’, or ‘reduce our reliance on temp workers’ or simply say ‘avoid bottlenecks in the warehouse’. Ask about whether they are using technology to support their warehouse operations and many of the professionals facing these problems will probably say no, and admit to relying on a paper-based warehouse system. That’s why they are having these issues.

 

The biggest single factor influencing how efficiently warehouse can run is whether or not it is technology driven. If you want a streamlined, successful warehouse operation to improve your bottom line, this journey starts with the introduction of a dedicated warehouse management system (WMS). A warehouse management system can track the flow of all goods, from arrival at the warehouse, onto packing and dispatch, before tracking the final order journey to the customer’s delivery address.

 

Considering this point a different way, if all your competitors are adopting new technologies and benefiting from the advantages brought by a WMS, your reliance on paper systems will make it ever more difficult to compete.

 

Paper-based warehouse management systems have long outlived their usefulness for many companies. Even smaller warehouses can take advantage of the tools and data that are part of a WMS system and new ‘light touch’ software solutions are available to make the transition as fast and low cost as possible. Here are a few of the ways a WMS can remove the common bottlenecks from paper-based warehousing that may be holding you back.

5 of the warehouse bottlenecks removed with a WMS

1. Goods receiving and put away

Stock comes into the warehouse all the time, whether it is raw materials for manufacturers, or finished goods to be sold on. This is your business working capital, but it’s only working for you if it’s available either to be sold, or made into something that can be sold. Whilst it’s sitting in the warehouse waiting to be booked in, this stock is just an overhead, it’s costing money (and maybe also creating an obstacle to get around).

 

A WMS will help to automate booking stock in, making it immediately available on the system either for selling, or for use within production. It also helps find locations for stock items and this can mean up to 30% more stock gets properly stored in easily identifiable locations, in a given area of space.

 

The actual process of put away can also be inefficient because people can end up congregating in the same areas, causing aisle congestion. Using a WMS, the whole operation can be project managed efficiently by the software to bring the minimum level of disruption.

2. Order picking

This is the classic area people first think of when considering a WMS and is the function where huge process efficiency gains can be seen instantly. Picking is one of the activities in every warehouse that can make or break the efficiency of your whole logistics operation. Switching from paper to a WMS means orders can be picked and sent out to customers as quickly and accurately as possible. It also allows companies to shorten their order cycle times, with shorter lead times to help create a competitive edge and faster payment cycles. This is especially important for e-commerce businesses where fast, inexpensive delivery is a key purchase driver.

 

Using a WMS you can choose how to pick, whether you are focusing on bulk orders or single items to be picked as part of a ‘wave’. Or perhaps a combination of the two, depending on the time of day. Your business is likely to have its own unique needs and a WMS can support you with additional functionality that would normally take up time to record accurately on a paper system. You might need item level traceability and shelf life rotation, or need to cater for a very high throughput of products. Whatever your requirements, a WMS will work in real-time – as soon as items are picked, stock levels are automatically adjusted. If you were running on paper, this data would need inputting after the event, causing delays and bottlenecks.

 

Voice picking is one of the fastest growing methods used to improve order picking productivity and a WMS supports this way of working. By allowing your picker to carry out two-way communication with a WMS, they’ll be able to operate hands free. It is particularly handy in cold chain cold storage environments where pickers might be wearing protective gloves or where the warehouse stocks very high numbers of small items. Imaging having to work with paper pick sheets when you could be flying through the day’s orders, guided by technology.

3. Packing bench

In an efficient warehouse, goods travel to and from the packing bench quickly and with as much automation built into processes as possible. Using a WMS, it is possible to scan the entire contents of a box in one go and have an instant audit trail created, without the need to individually scan items. The system knows what’s in the box and where each item ultimately needs to go, whether that’s in a single consignment or split into multiple orders. Once items are checked out, the system can also spot opportunities to reduce the numbers of consignments sent to parcel delivery firms, saving on transport costs and packaging. A WMS also offers a high degree of process flexibility, with the chance to choose whether a single order is picked and packed by the same operative or picked and sent to a packing team who can then check for accuracy. It’s a choice between having accountability for orders lying with one individual or building quality into the process with independent verification. Both are easy to roll out and errors will rapidly become a distant memory.

4. Stock counting

Shrinkage can be a real problem in warehouses and completing a regular stock count is part of ongoing warehouse management. The problem with stock counts is the time they take. Counting is effectively dead time that could be better spent elsewhere. Using a WMS, it is possible to interweave transactions like stock counting with picking. When operatives are gathering the items for an order, they can do a stock count as they go about their pick walk, saving time and also ensuring that stock figures are always right up to date.

 

Counting as you go, also known as perpetual inventory management, has another very important benefit, it also ensures that replenishments are always up to date. If you are counting, you can be alerted when stocks are running too low in any given location, and this will trigger an automatic replenishment request. The WMS takes care of everything, by tracking likely stock requirements based on historical ordering patterns and automating the replenishment reminders. It is extremely difficult (and time consuming) to manage ongoing stock counting and replenishments as efficiently as this using only a paper-based system.

5. Returns management

Every e-commerce company’s biggest headache, returns are notoriously time consuming to process. It’s like doing goods receiving all over again, but this time the items need to be quality checked too. Just like before, these incoming stock items are not working for your business until they are booked in and with a WMS this is as immediate as it can possibly be. When the WMS is integrated with an e-commerce store front, goods can even be put back up for sale the second they are checked back in as part of a returns management process. You could never achieve that level of efficiency with a paper based system.

 

Many of IAOAI Software’s customers have made the transition from managing their warehouses using paper to full brown automation with IAOAI WMS. We have countless examples showing how businesses in diverse industries, from fine ales to furniture, dog collars to designer underwear, whisky to walking boots, each seeing a rapid return on investment. Imagine a warehouse without paper, how much better would it be?

It’s that time of year when we are coming to the end of the January sales and you can potentially bag a really good bargain, especially online. Many designer brands are offering 70% off and some even have extra discounts on top. That feeling when you realise the item you have silently been coveting is now within your grasp is priceless, you click to buy and get the email confirmation. Life is sweet. It’s an opportunity for the seller too, being able to shift all those old stock items that are clogging up the warehouse. Provided things go to plan.

 

But what happens when, 30 minutes later, the customer gets another email, this time telling them their order has been cancelled. Disappointment sets in. That special something isn’t coming your way after all. The item you thought you were buying isn’t actually available to buy. Maybe someone else got there before you did? Or maybe the stock level figures are incorrect. Most frequently it’s the latter scenario, because the seller doesn’t have end to end visibility of stocks in the warehouse being shared with its e-commerce storefront. Warehouse stock data is never fully up to date, either because the warehouse is managed using excel spreadsheets and paper sales order schedules, or because online order information is batch processed at set periods during the day. It is a frustrating but all too common scenario that can seriously impact customer goodwill levels. If shoppers start to suspect the accuracy of your ecommerce store, will they keep returning? Maybe not. More damaging, these disgruntled customers may choose to leave a negative review on Trustpilot, not because the stock sold is bad quality or faulty, but due to their disappointment over a stock accuracy mistake that is easily avoided.

 

Back office operations are also affected by these stock accuracy problems too, because a system that is poorly automated requires more costly human intervention. Operatives are required to process partial refunds and split orders, which can be time consuming and adds to the cost of completing the order itself, eating into profit margins. Using warehouse management system (WMS) software, it is possible to automate many routine and repetitive processes in the warehouse, which in turn helps to minimise the impact of exception handling and mitigates higher labour costs. Employees can frequently represent up to 50% of warehousing costs and a WMS will mitigate the impact of human errors, plus optimise resource utilisation. The potential savings can be very significant.

 

Investing in a WMS that communicates in real-time between the warehouse and store fronts can be one of the best commercial decisions your business makes. Stock accuracy mistakes that could leave bargain hunters feeling deflated won’t happen and there are many other benefits too. Using a WMS, it is possible to track stock items right down to the last item left in the warehouse accurately and avoid disappointing customers. If only a single product is left, when that last item is picked off the shelf, zero availability is immediately recorded and the item vanishes from view online. If more stocks can be ordered, the WMS can trigger an automatic replenishment request to suppliers. Then, if and when the item returns to stock – either because of a customer return or fresh delivery – the product can be re-displayed for sale. By tightly controlling all stock movements, a WMS controls what items the customer sees as available for sale and any mistakes are avoided.

 

The WMS also takes care of ongoing stock management and cycle counting automatically. This feature is also invaluable during the final weeks of a sale period. Each time an operative visits a particular location to pick stock for an order, they can be asked to confirm the numbers of items remaining, adding in a further check to warehouse processes. This is the Perpetual Inventory (PI) feature within IAOAI WMS. Then, when the sale period is over and the business returns to normal operations, the warehouse can run more efficiently all year around, with orders processed quickly and efficiently, removing any negative impact of peak periods on staffing levels.

 

In addition to increasing stock accuracy levels, a WMS also helps companies to store more goods more efficiently, but using less warehouse space. Every single unit of space can be fully utilised without impacting on efficiency levels. At a time when increasing inflation is impacting warehouse rental rates, this is a significant benefit. A best of breed WMS can enable up to 30% more stock to be stored in a warehouse because it will suggest new locations that are being underutilised and then guides the operative to find the items when an order is received. There are other ways a WMS can improve stock management efficiency, by monitoring how frequently items will be picked and then suggesting the best places to store them in the warehouse and recommending whether items need special storage considerations.

 

Make 2023 the year that you decide to embrace the technology available and improve your order to despatch process by bringing calm to chaos.

 

If you would like to discuss how a WMS can help bring up to the second stock accuracy to your e-commerce operations, contact us for a business review meeting.

IAOAI Software, a leading global provider of best of breed warehouse management system (WMS) solutions, has appointed logistics specialist, Oliver Goodman, to the role of Principal Consultant. An important role within the business and critical to customer success levels, Oliver’s responsibilities include providing leadership, organisation and coordination to support IAOAI Software’s highly regarded Consultancy Team. His remit includes leading client software implementation activities, to ensure all projects adhere to best practice and exceed customer expectations where possible.

 

A graduate in Robotics Technology, Oliver brings a wealth of warehousing industry experience to the role, including working in Greene King operations and projects for over 4 years.

 

Oliver originally joined IAOAI Software’s Consulting group in 2016 where he provided consultancy services and implemented IAOAI WMS at numerous customers’ sites.

 

Oliver has a blend of both operational and IT experience which he uses to provide strategic and tactical recommendations which drive improvements in customers’ warehouse flow and operations.

 

Most recently Oliver has used his knowledge of warehousing and retail in a number of consultancy roles implementing solutions from multiple WMS vendors, including Tier 1 providers.

 

Collectively this experience and his background makes him a perfect candidate for the role of Principal Consultant.

 

Paul Smith, COO, IAOAI Software says, “Our Consultancy Team is one of the company’s key value adds for customers and a major reason why so many customers choose to implement IAOAI WMS. Oliver is a real asset to the team and we are delighted to be offering him this position.”

 

Oliver Goodman, Principal Consultant at IAOAI Software says, “IAOAI Software is a great place to work, client projects are always very interesting, my colleagues are very supportive and we have excellent self-development opportunities. I am very excited to be starting this new role.”

 

As we approach the end of 2022, a year in which we have seen the dark spectre of war once again in Europe, one of the most disastrous economic budgets in modern history and three UK prime ministers, you might be wondering what else could possibly happen in 2023!

 

When it comes to predicting what’s around the corner for logisticians and warehouse managers, there’s possibly more certainty. Eric Carter, Solutions Architect at IAOAI Software shares his top predictions for warehouses in 2023.
Money may be tight, but automation will accelerate

 

Despite the cost increases and financial pressures in every industry, companies cannot afford not to invest in automation and new technology in 2023. There may be risks involved but those companies that invest in automation technology will prosper in the long run and the benefits will be seen well beyond the current economic downturn. As economists have always advocated, downturns are opportunities to outmanoeuvre rivals and make smart investments. Your people, your processes and your products are the building blocks of your business and are worth the investment – we refer to them as the 3 Ps of warehouse management.

 

Supply chain uncertainty will continue

The year began with supply chain disruption and it’s likely many of the supply chain issues we’ve come to regard as par for the course will continue. Expect delays at ports, strike action, raw material shortages and more. China, the world’s last major economy still enforcing strict zero-Covid measures has only recently started to ease back away from these as the dire consequences to the economy that these lockdowns produce is finally being recognised. It’s guaranteed that shortages in some areas will continue and be exacerbated as the winter in the northern hemisphere closes in. New trends like just in case planning and lumpy inventory management will remain as companies hedge their bets and over order on stock to see them through difficult periods. A Warehouse Management System (WMS) will help ensure inventory management is as accurate and efficient as possible, essential when stock levels are running higher than the norm.

 

Increasing emphasis on ESG from consumers, investors and workers

COP27 may have been regarded as a disappointment in terms of tangible agreement from world leaders, but having a clear green strategy is an absolute must for every business. The companies that prioritise investing in renewables, moving towards net zero and having more sustainable product alternatives are the ones that will attract the greatest loyalty – from customers, investors and employees. Using a WMS system can make a big contribution to net zero targets and offers many other benefits too.

 

Warehouses need to flex and flow

When times are tough, we all need to be flexible and adaptable – warehouses are no exception. Right from the numbers of employees needed at short notice for order fulfilment, to the amount of space required for incoming stocks, warehouses need to be flexible and agile. In 2023, being agile means having the bandwidth and resilience to adapt quickly to sudden changes, respond favourably to emerging trends and have enough buffers in place to cope with negative developments. When it comes to becoming as flexible as possible, one of the best ways to sustain the agility needed for success in 2023, will be with a WMS solution.

 

Labour shortages drive growth in warehouse automation

One of the most immediate impacts of Brexit in warehousing has been a contraction to the available workforce. It is more expensive to recruit operatives and this trend will continue in 2023. It is another major reason why levels of investment into warehouse automation are rising so quickly. Hiring in extra labour during busy periods is a sunk cost, whereas once the right technology is in place, the potential operational savings can continue indefinitely. One area that is especially likely to see expanded activity is inbound automation, traditionally a very labour-intensive aspect of warehouse management. In 2023, companies will be looking to reduce the traditional reliance on people, speed up the turnaround of incoming goods and make inbound logistics processes much more efficient.

 

Compact and bijou warehouses

As anyone who has ever had a small bedroom will appreciate, orderliness is the key to managing in a confined space, and the same is true of warehouses. One long term trend set to continue is for smaller warehouses in more densely populated urban areas. It means companies – especially e-commerce providers – can offer micro-fulfilment services, shorter delivery windows and a generally more responsive service. These offerings will be essential competitive differentiators in 2023 and using a WMS ensures that locations are tightly controlled and higher stock volumes can be stored in a smaller space.

 

Data driven warehouse management

The Covid pandemic continues to shape warehouse trends, even although life has largely returned to ‘normal’ again. What Covid did was alter consumer behaviour permanently, accelerating the growth of ecommerce and digital transformation. Both these initiatives are effectively powered by data. Warehouses rely on accurate data to ensure visibility, and digitalisation projects join the dots to ensure that information can be shared easily among all the key connections within the supply chain. Inside the 4 walls is where a WMS adds value, offering the ability to model operational performance using real time data. As data science becomes more sophisticated, thanks to machine learning and AI driven warehouse management, expect more data and insight gathering in 2023.

 

Cybersecurity extends to the warehouse

The threat of a cyber attack is now so high that it is less a case of if an attack takes place, as when. Companies need to expect that they will be compromised and have watertight processes in place for recovery. The same applies to warehousing and we expect warehouse managers to play a far more active role in formulating cyber resilience strategies in 2023. Hackers are increasingly on the look out for new targets and with so many businesses reliant upon e-commerce operations, the warehouse is a prime target. Expect to be playing a central role in business disaster recovery planning.

Economic conditions could not be more precarious for manufacturers and retailers as we enter the autumn and winter 2022 festive seasons. The current economic landscape features all of the supply chain problems experienced in the past few pandemic years – disrupted availability, skill and labour shortages and rising costs due to increased demand and salary expectations due to increased inflationary pressures.

 

Now in 2022 the upcoming peak season, which begins with Black Friday on 25 November, faces some new challenges. There are unprecedented increases to energy and raw materials costs- in part due to geopolitical instability and the global cost of living crisis. Consumers have not been as worried about ‘affording the basics’ for many decades and the phrase ‘Heat or eat’ is frequently being used to sum up the harsh reality for many.

 

Somehow, against this difficult backdrop, UK retailers and manufacturers need to ensure that the forthcoming festive period, a time when many businesses need to secure their biggest sales, goes as profitably as possible. Here are 5 reasons why the 2022 season will be more challenging and why it is important to optimise inside the 4 walls of your warehouse:

 

Increased cost of living

Households are being hard hit by higher food prices, influenced by geopolitical instability and supply shortages. Some analysts have predicted that consumers will cut back on expenditure this season and demand planning has been much more difficult. Where businesses have erred on the side of caution, there may be shortages or delays taking receipt of drop-shipped items.

 

Skills shortages

Fewer available workers in warehouses, logistics providers and core utility services have already pushed up wage rates and now there is industrial action to contend with. Strikes, such as the ongoing UK railway and postal strikes, are impacting deliveries of raw materials and also shipments. Dock workers have been on strike and if there is further action, this will cause further disruption to supply chains right at a time when demand is highest.

 

Energy shortages

Every type of good we use has been hit by price inflation and this includes energy costs. Due to rising gas prices and reduced supply from Russia, some suppliers may be forced to scale back production or partially discontinue business operations, as threatened in Germany. This international disruption will have a negative impact on UK manufacturing supply chains. Even countries that do not rely on energy supplies from Russia are responding to energy price rises. Pakistan has cut its work week to lower energy demand and in Norway, fertiliser production has been slashed, affecting food supply chains. In the UK, it is the automotive sector that could see further production uncertainty. Reduced power availability is hitting car makers because components supplied by China are in short supply.

 

Geopolitical uncertainty

Touched upon already, the war in Ukraine is having an impact on energy and food price inflation, creating problems for food manufacturers and disruption for supply chains. So serious are the shortages, that manufacturers are actively seeking alternatives to key raw ingredients – wheat and sunflower oil being prime examples – to protect their businesses from the long term effects. Hostilities between countries are also having an impact on availability. For instance, supply chains that deliver semi-conductors to computers manufacturers are experiencing some delays.

 

Extreme weather

Even climate change has impacted the supply chain. Extreme temperatures in Europe caused fires and ‘melting roads’, with droughts elsewhere causing water levels to drop, impacting shipping supply routes. In China, parts of the Yangtze river, used for transporting 45% of the country’s economic output, have been closed to ships because water levels are 50% below normal. This has an obvious impact on freight volumes being shipped to manufacturers and retailers.

 

All these issues highlight just how interconnected today’s world is and the extreme complexity of modern supply chains. Although many of these macro issues are beyond the immediate control of business owners, there are still plenty of ways to improve operational efficiency within the 4 walls of a warehouse, by investing in warehouse management system (WMS) software. Here are three quick wins your business can benefit from now.

 

Store goods more efficiently using less warehouse space

Increasing inflationary pressures is affecting warehouse rental rates. Rising prices and property shortages mean warehouse space is getting more and more expensive. A best of breed WMS can help you make more efficient use of your warehousing space, with up to 20-30% savings possible. For example, an effective put-away process is an important stock management strategy to maximise space utilisation. There are multiple ways a WMS can automate putaway, by identifying the best place to store items based on available spaces, monitoring how frequently items will be picked and where they should be placed in the warehouse, and whether items need special storage considerations.

 

Automate routine and repetitive tasks

A WMS will automate many routine and repetitive processes in the warehouse, which in turn helps to minimise the impact of labour shortages and higher wage costs. Employees can frequently represent up to 50% of warehousing costs and a WMS will mitigate the impact of human errors, plus optimise resource utilisation. The potential savings can be very significant.

 

Integrating Processes

One common observation in a warehouse is what IAOAI Software describes as ‘anarchy masquerading as flexibility’. Processes are not fully integrated, there are different suppliers and systems in place with a lack of standardisation. Anywhere there is a lack of integration, there are hidden costs. For example, a company might use a range of different systems to manage parcel shipments rather than having a single integrated and standardised process. The extra costs inherent within a disintegrated process become magnified when inflation is increasing. It can also compromise the quality of data, which in turn negatively impacts sales order entry, planning, production, and customer satisfaction.

 

Ultimately, a WMS cannot completely shield your business from challenges in the macro economic environment, but they can most definitely provide a high level of insulation. IAOAI WMS can help you become super canny about minimising costs, so that your resources can stretch further, and profits are less impacted.

The certainty that we all enjoyed in 2019 is long gone and these days, the only certainty we have right now is constant change. Everything is continually changing. It could be changes needed in the warehouse because there are not enough operatives on the ground, a change in processes because high business rate charges negatively impact selling strategies, or because you are having to manage the impacts of a fluctuating supply of raw materials.

All these issues point to the need for agility, being able to respond to ever changing trends and flex your workforce when needed. Here are three ways a Warehouse Management System (WMS) solution can help your business to achieve the extreme flexibility needed to cope with today’s changeable business environment.

 

Flexible warehouse layouts

We are all familiar with the concept of zone picking and having high throughput lines located throughout the warehouse for sales winners. Certain products need to be stored in convenient locations to be easily accessible. This does not just involve having them in an area nearest to the loading bay, but pinpointing the exact place that high volume items should be stored to minimise the physical impact on pickers and be easily accessible. Where should stock be positioned to make best use of operators and reduce the amount of wear and tear on their bodies during a busy day? Apparel warehouses provide a good example to illustrate this point. You might employ a racking infrastructure with various height levels and the best place to store a fast moving is at waist height, to avoid a picker having to bend down each time.

 

A WMS helps achieve this level of fine tuning by providing data to report against lines and picking locations that see the most traffic. Using data captured, it’s possible to generate a heat map of the warehouse to display busy zones and provide a detailed overview of volumes picked from each location. It’s then easy to generate the best possible pick walk sequences. In seasonal industries, heat maps will need to be reviewed every quarter at a minimum, to remain as efficient as possible.

 

Help to manage staffing issues

Warehouses that monitor productivity levels have been criticised in the past for being intrusive, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. In almost every workplace, people have targets and are monitored on performance, why should it be any different in the warehouse? Built into a WMS is an audit trail feature, which allows management to home in on worker performance trends, like a common source of picking errors, or a high incidence of non conformance with pre-defined rules. For example, WMS software could instruct an operator to go to a particular location and put a particular pallet away. The operator might decide not to follow the recommended instruction and use another location, but would have to override the system to complete the transaction. If that happens too frequently it could cause other problems but because the WMS captures the history of every operation, it is easy to investigate these exceptions and ensure the repeat behaviour does not adversely affect performance levels.

 

Another way a WMS helps manage staffing efficiency is the ease of onboarding new team members in your warehouse. With a WMS it can typically take just 30 minutes for a new starter to be fully functional and because WMS software guides them through tasks, newcomers only really need a rudimentary understanding of how a warehouse functions. Linked to this, the in-built reporting means that anyone needing top up training is easily spotted according to their error frequency levels. Mistakes happen in every warehouse and using the WMS database, it is possible to identify errors before shipments leave the 4 walls.

 

Multitude of stock management benefits

A WMS can also help flex when it comes to stock management, which is perhaps one of the most important benefits. Businesses make key decisions based on the accuracy of inventory figures and by automatically capturing every stock movement in real time, WMS users have robust inventory numbers that fully support decision making, whether it is by customer service or procurement departments.

 

Another stock management advantage arises from being able to store up to 30% more stock within the same total area, thanks to WMS software’s dynamic slotting capabilities. This identifies any surplus space within available locations and records where stock is left, to be collected as needed. Implementing a warehouse management system actually conserves space to such a high degree that it’s possible to sweat property assets for longer, resulting in lower capex and reduced business risk.

 

A WMS provides a detailed history of everything that took place in a warehouse – last week, last month, last season – to support decision making processes. It will document busy and slack times in detail allowing management to extrapolate trends and plan workload based on past performance and future growth expectations. A WMS can also provide an early warning of pinch points in the process, based on advance shipment notifications and expected delivery volumes. This means operatives can be fully prepared for large orders and can free up space accordingly. The detailed audit trail is an advantage and pre-requisite for food industry businesses who want to supply leading brands – supermarkets, hospitality businesses and other manufacturers. These types of customers expect excellence and require detailed reporting at very short notice – impossible to achieve using just paper based auditing.

Overall using a WMS helps to transform how the three key aspects of running a business warehouse – the 3 Ps – can be managed. People, products and processes. Consider that managing a warehouse is like baking a cake and a tasty cake is made up of three core elements, all in the right proportions. According to this analogy, a WMS is equivalent to having an advanced, programable cake mixer that brings everything together and records exactly what happened and when, with a watertight audit trail.

Allergens in food can have serious health consequences and in the worst cases, inadvertent contamination can be fatal. According to the Association of UK Dieticians, between 1-10% of adults and children are estimated to have a food hypersensitivity of some description and 20% of the population report experiencing reactions to certain foods, making them believe they have a food hypersensitivity.

 

We have all read news reports about the individuals who had serious lactose intolerance inadvertently consuming dairy products which resulted in death. These are tragic cases and for every fatality that’s widely publicised, there are many hundreds more people who have suffered a severe reaction from mistakenly eating something they are allergic to. Many new, plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products contain serious allergens – nuts, seeds, pulses, wheat and soya predominantly. These should always be labelled correctly and stored away from other raw materials to avoid contamination, but errors happen and allergens can creep into a production line.

 

WMS controls watertight food safety processes

As food manufacturers are keenly aware, it is essential to have watertight processes enabling full stock traceability. Having the ability to manage which stocks are selected for a production run, and then have the right controls in place to trace an item from the moment it arrives onsite to its final dispatch as a finished product, are now more important than ever. Where a business has achieved a BRC approved status the ability to track and trace through a mixture of Process, Procedures and Compliance must be proven.

 

This is where implementing a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and integrating it with an existing ERP system to power real time decision making comes into its own. A WMS can control every aspect of your warehouse operation, separating activities between raw materials and finished goods. It gives food manufacturers the ability to trace every product made together with its constituent ingredients right through the warehouse and beyond to the customer. Users can track which batch of ingredients were used in a production batch and know exactly where those goods ended up. In the event of a food safety recall the products can be isolated swiftly to maximise consumer safety levels.

 

A WMS provides food manufacturers with complete control of all stock coming into the warehouse, being moved around the 4 walls and into production and then control of finished products as they leave the warehouse. This can be done at the single item, case or pallet level. Particularly important for allergen control, is the ability to select raw materials and stock with special characteristics to meet specific requirements and the ability to trace when a specific batch of stock has been issued and to which dispatching point. If necessary, stock batches can be quarantined and investigated for contamination, with a complete audit trail for compliance reporting.

Just as important as traceability management is stock rotation. Consumers want to eat the freshest food possible but fresh ingredients are highly perishable. Many food raw materials have limited shelf lives and when using a WMS, it is easy to track stock according to production, best before, expiry or inbound receipting dates. Operating First-In, First-Out (FIFO) stock rotation for efficient shelf life management becomes a routine procedure – for raw materials as well as packaging, thereby reducing levels of waste.

 

This highlights another danger for consumers, when foods that may be in date are contaminated with a bacteria, like salmonella or e Coli, and they inadvertently enter the supply chain. Finished goods that contain the offending raw ingredients need to be recalled quickly to minimise any threat to public health. A WMS helps here too, by supporting real time reporting of outbound customer deliveries, ensuring full stock traceability through the supply chain and simplifying product recalls in the event of a QA issue.

 

For any food manufacturer implementing warehouse management software can expect to recoup their investment many times over in a short space of time. Frequently it is the smaller, artisan manufacturers that get caught out when it comes to allergen controls, because they lack the technological capability to trace every stage in the manufacturing chain. Now, with rapid implementation WMS solutions available, like IAOAI QuickStart, introducing traceability need not result in any disruption to your business. Clearly there is huge scope for manufacturers to improve food traceability and tightly manage allergen control and with allergies on the rise everywhere in the world, it is time to embrace what a WMS can offer.