Achieving Exponential Growth with Your WMS
Published on 27 May 2022
Supply chain management is evolving to accommodate new technologies and business models. Maintaining the status quo is no longer enough to keep up with demand in a rapidly changing marketplace. In order to successfully overcome the constant market disruptions, companies must reach a high level of agility. The flexibility in implementing swift decisions depends on the availability of real-time data and the ability of your technologies to quickly support the required changes without the need for extra development or a long-term deployment project.
Modern warehouse management systems (WMSs) will allow your organization to gain business agility, supporting exponential growth. The array of innovative digital features that a WMS has to offer facilitates the development of sustainable manufacturing while enabling the business to seize growth opportunities.
Quick Change Management
Quick turnarounds are making the difference. Unexpected changes come in different shapes. For example, you managed to acquire a large new client, but this entails a slew of new requirements such as a new shipment label format, integration with their EDI system, or adjusting certain reports. You want a quick implementation so that you can start seeing the benefits from the increased sales immediately. Another example is where the change is in the actual process. Your organization wants to change an internal workflow that takes into consideration the expiration date, lot number, or GS1-128 barcodes - all to increase productivity. A WMS solution that allows these changes as a simple configurable definition will offer your business enhanced flexibility to support constant changes, increasing your agility which ultimately results in business growth.
Simplified Automation
By providing real-time inventory tracking through digitization, it becomes easier to fulfill orders while keeping your focus on the bigger picture. Robust cycle counting processes ensure inventory is accurate throughout the supply chain. Advanced WMS software allows smooth order fulfillment by analyzing stock against scheduled deliveries, eliminating inventory shortages, and identifying damages that can occur over time, keeping sellable inventory levels accurate. Precision tracking enables companies to move inventory between warehouses, monitor sales, and reduce the risk of spoilage through automated tracking.
Singular Focal View
By integrating digital access to logistical information, the WMS facilitates communications between all vested stakeholders. With all parties able to view the inventory status in real-time, the physical flow of goods is better planned, and thus more cost-effective.
The automated nature of a WMS allows for comprehensive shipment planning. By integrating all facets of the supply chain, scheduling shipments becomes efficient (e.g., by delivery date, by location, by product size/weight). Tracking the sequence of order deliveries against the manufacturing schedule allows companies to control inventory, prevent backlog, and facilitate the shipment process. With a WMS, all those involved in the supply chain, from manufacturing to shipping, remain in the know at all times.
Manufacturing and Warehouse Tracking
State-of-the-art WMS platforms enable the assembly process to continue while accurately tracking raw materials. Instead of informational downtime during production, a modern manufacturing execution system (MES) provides details on works in progress and finished products. It tracks all supplies whether warehoused, in transit, or in production. As inventory moves, counts, and picks are often interleaved, the WMS allows a single user to track the movement of supplies and manage different types of processes based on their location in the warehouse. This reduces costs due to damage, overproduction, or downtime.
The WMS provides agility through quick responses to incidents across the supply chain. It allows manufacturers to avoid loss through prioritizing tasks based on the most relevant metrics (e.g., shipment issues, downtime due to maintenance). These savings are a direct result of increased efficiency, ultimately promoting steady growth.
Sustainable Digitization
Warehouse management systems streamline the transition from paper-based processing to automation. Advanced WMS offer ample opportunities for development such as algorithmic analysis streamlining productivity allowing for precision inventory tracking.
The technology available for integrating manufacturing and warehousing processes is designed to foster true business growth. By limiting the probability of human errors through automated checks and balances, the WMS reduces loss and cultivates business advancement. The AI analysis pinpoints opportunities for further economic development based on the focus of the company. From environmentally friendly campaigns to reducing the cost of labor using robotics, the digitization process offered by a WMS is the first step towards exponential growth.
Rapid Deployment of Integrated Functions
To maintain this rapid growth, manufacturers should avoid issues of human error, inventory loss, or high client attrition rates. The WMS can ensure compliance with relevant regulations and client needs, with objectivity only achievable through automation. Streamlining data exchange across all components of the supply chain accelerates the process of receiving correct information and avoiding unexpected challenges. This allows manufacturers to respond to the needs of their clients, in real-time, without incurring extra costs. By saving time and money in crisis management and issue resolution, the business can focus on expanding.
Intuitive and Cost-Effective Workforce Development
The latest WMS technologies include comprehensive documentation to support learning and staff development through job training. This aspect of the WMS helps companies to speed up the learning process of employees. Instead of relying on human learning, machine learning is guaranteed to retain information. Streamlined digitized processes reduce human error since the automated systems ensure flawless execution of tasks. Using the WMS documented protocols, the system supports staff retention, enabling the business to benefit from the synergy of human resources and technology.
Using a WMS to Foster Exponential Growth
The future of manufacturing and distribution lies in automation. A warehouse management system provides business agility in an unparalleled manner. Implementing a modern technological solution to integrate all aspects of the supply chain takes the growing pains out of scaling a company. Exponential growth is a matter of embracing the future and a modern warehouse management system helps businesses achieve that goal.
About Generix Group North America
Generix Group North America is a division of Generix Group SA, a global expert in collaborative supply chain technologies and business processes that develops and implements advanced supply chain execution solutions. We invite you to contact us to learn more.
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