Technology is advancing, and customers expect products ordered today to be at their doorstep yesterday. Real-Time visibility of what inventory you have available in the warehouse, what list you have on order to the warehouse, and what your upcoming order demand looks like is a necessity in today’s world. It is unacceptable to a customer for a company to not know where inventory is within their warehouse or to be out of stock. Now you have an angry customer who might take their business elsewhere and never return.
If your company is utilizing a Warehouse Management System, you are headed in the right direction. Using a WMS to track the ins and outs of clientele products is essential to running a business in today’s crazy world.
However, some of those businesses may be using outdated software, or perhaps their software is non-existent. It may seem implausible, but if a small startup business is relying on sticky notes and spiral notebooks, things are going to fall apart quickly. You don’t want this mayhem to happen to you.
If your company is losing clients due to obsolete methods, it’s time to upgrade to a WMS that offers easy-to-learn software that offers real-time visibility, whether on-site or not. There are four areas in an advanced WMS that demonstrate the importance of real-time visibility of a company’s inventory data.The Importance of Receiving:
A high-end WMS is meant to streamline the movement of received merchandise from the point of arrival to where it will ultimately be stored in your warehouse. If your new client is nervous about their first shipment, chances are you will be hearing from them quite a lot in the beginning. “Have you received our product yet? Is it intact? Is it all there?”
Out-of-date technology will leave you scrambling for answers, and a waiting client is an unhappy one. Utilizing a WMS with real-time visibility lets you quickly (and honestly) reassure them that everything was accounted for precisely seven minutes ago.
The Importance of Storage:
This can include the manual or automatic product allocation into specific areas within your warehouse. If you have yet to purchase a quality WMS, you may be relying on workforce to eyeball where the product should go. Of course, every warehouse needs real people to keep things running, but to err is human, and errors cost time and money.
It only takes one absent-minded person talking on their cellphone to write down the wrong number or the incorrect code to leave your floor in a disorganized mass of unmarked boxes and confusion. Then the client calls, demanding a recount of their product…and you don’t even know where it’s stored, let alone when it is supposed to move out.
If something doesn’t seem right, you can log in to the WMS at any time, day or night, to reassure yourself that the product is stored right where it was supposed to be, per your instructions.
The Importance of Picking:
If you’re still new to the world of WMS, this term refers to collecting the items of a specific order within the warehouse. When it comes time for that unique customer’s product to move off the shelves, your company must move quickly and effectively to process the order, so their business is as competent as it promises. After all, that person may be your customer, but they have their customers.
The Importance of Delivery:
A quality WMS will contain a detailed account of anything and everything related to their shipment, meaning you can assure them that, in real-time, it’s expected that they will be receiving their delivery 15 minutes ahead of schedule. You can even report that the shipment was cheaper than anticipated because your WMS informed you that the cargo was lighter than the previous delivery.
Efficiency, accuracy, and speed are necessary when operating a warehouse. An excellent warehouse management system will give you the real-time visibility your business needs to keep your clients happy and to return.
