With the help of the right technology, you can run a tight ship and improve the efficiency of your warehouse facility. You get to avoid some of the mistakes that could lead you to incur heavy losses or dull your competitive edge. If you struggle to keep an accurate inventory, you’re doing your business an injustice. That is according to a leading supplier of warehouse management systems in Australia. In warehousing and distribution, disorganisation leads to costly errors, product losses, and shipment delays. All of which hurt your business and could lead you to lose your edge on the market. That’s why you need to enlist the help of emerging technology to improve the efficiency of your warehousing facility. In addition to helping you keep a sharp eye on your inventory, such a system comes with additional benefits.
Minimise losses
When you’re carrying a large inventory, you’re likely to incur some losses. Some of your stock can be damaged, wrongly accounted for, lost, or misplaced. Such losses only serve to increase the unit cost of the inventory, which translates into a higher total cost of goods. In a price sensitive market, that could leave you at a significant disadvantage as your goods might end up being pricier than your rivals. It could hurt your business competitiveness, lowering your chances of getting 100 per cent order fulfilment. It’s, therefore, in your best interest to keep inventory loss at the barest minimum.
Warehouse management technology gives you greater control of your facility by letting you identify and seal any loopholes. You also get to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your current process and take corrective measures.
Customise your operations for efficiency
It’s common for warehousing facilities to hold hundreds of products; many of which might be similar in weight and appearance. If your inventory process is inefficient, there’s a high likelihood of getting such products all mixed up or misplaced. This could lead you to have stock discrepancies and false stock-outs or ship the wrong product to your customers. Using visible product labelling can help you arrest such a situation.
Big, visible, code-based product labels make it easy for your staff to spot and pick inventory. With the right technology, you can customise a labelling system that suits your specific needs. Labelling systems can be based on cost, inventory type, how fast the product moves, or serial numbers. Visible product labelling is at the heart of some of the most efficient production systems.
Create efficient planograms
A planogram maps the entire warehouse showing the location of each product to improve item retrieval. Planograms are crucial in warehouses and retail spaces as they provide visual clues during inventory placement and retrieval. Such technology lets you identify best sellers and fast-moving goods so that you can place them where they are readily accessible. This means that you can follow the bin card system to lower your risk of losing inventory. Since warehouse management is cyclic, once you develop an efficient handling system, it will serve you for a long time. You can follow the set and forget the model and still save lots of money in the process.
The key to a successful warehouse management operation depends on your ability to eliminate weak points that lead you to incur hefty losses. Enlisting the help of the appropriate technology can help you achieve this feat.