eCommerce Focused WMS Solution to Improve Inventory Visibility & Fulfillment Accuracy
Written By – Mr. Anurag Kashyap Devulapal
Leading e-commerce companies operating as Inventory based or Hyperlocal delivery business models will have a broader approach to address below key aspects as part of their Supply chain strategy.
- Inventory Management & hyper-local delivery:
Procuring stocks or goods from suppliers/vendors. Received stock is maintained at warehouses. Movement of Stock from Central locations to various delivery centers (hub & spoke Model) for customer delivery. - Customer Service:
Order management & fulfillment is the key to delivering customer orders on time.
Best-in-Class companies are far more likely to be concerned with reducing inventory carrying costs and transportation costs, as a part of a holistic approach to multi-site fulfillment.
Can easily identify which & how much stock to order at what time and tracks inventory from purchase to the sale of goods. This practice identifies and responds to ensure there’s always enough stock to fulfill customer orders and proper warning of a shortage.
You can manage warehouse operations of any scale, from single to multiple warehouses spread across various locations, with our Flexiware – WMS. In a brief, our software address the below Key components.
- Visibility: Know what you have specified, and keep track of the location of the products
- Inventory: Estimate how much of each item you’ll need to meet demand within a specific time period.
- Purchasing/Replenishing: Know when stock must be purchased in order to arrive in time to meet demand.
- Analysis: Understand the data that gives insight into how to order inventory more effectively in the future.
- Multichannel Tracking: Allocate inventory levels among physical locations and fulfillment centers for eCommerce orders, and shift inventory as needed.
Below are the functionalities of WMS that accommodates the majority of real-life use cases.
Inventory Receiving and Put Away
- Purchase order Management: Fully customizable Interface allows you to set stock thresholds, and manage your purchase orders as simply as using your smartphone. Promptly Create, Issue, and Print Purchase orders based on MBQ’s defined location-wise.
- Goods Receipt Note: Module to record the receipt of stock or items from your suppliers. Helps in tracking the stock added to the inventory.
- Stock Management: Stock Transfers from warehouse to stores, stores to warehouses. Visibility of stock movement from one location to another location
- Receiving: An app-based module supports checking the quantity of the stock received against a PO raised. Key features support EAN/Barcode scanning, Qty accepted or rejected, in case of any rejection goods discrepancy note generation.
- Stacking: Stacking-Right putaway system simplifies the processing of storing received items or stocks in assigned rack locations. Our stacking app can facilitate the movement of stock or items based on SKU, PO & Product type to assigned rack locations. It helps for hassle-free Picking and inventory checks
Inventory Control and Tracking
- Real-time monitoring of inventory levels with barcode or RFID technology.
- Setup of stock rotation rules (e.g., FIFO or FEFO).
- Expiration dates and shelf-life monitoring.
- Inventory transfer requesting and tracking.
- Cycle count planning, scheduling, and assignment to personnel.
- Inventory location identification (e.g., to find inventory for carrying out cycle counts or collecting orders).
Order Management & Fulfillment
Reliable warehouse management software is responsible for orchestrating Order Management activities. Prioritization of orders & assignments is the key step for effective order management
- Order Assignment Module: A Robust module designed to allocate orders to Pickers in the warehouse under set conditions or criteria. Facilitating the order assignment based on the hub, location, and delivery slots.
- Multi-order assignment: The Enhancement feature built on top of the assignment module supports the process of multiple-order assignments based on routes.
Order picking
Order picking is the backbone of successful order fulfillment operations and is central to any thriving eCommerce and retail business. There are several types of order-picking systems developed for warehouses to boost productivity and accuracy.
- Single Order Picking: The Order Scan application supports Single order picking. Pickers move through the warehouse & retrieve SKUs one by one to fulfill one order at a time
- Multi Order picking: Multiple orders can be fulfilled at a time as the system retrieves SKUs in bulk. This speeds up fulfillment operations and minimizes travel time for warehouses that receive multiple orders containing the same SKUs. To pick SKUs for multiple orders in one pass, pickers use a consolidated pick list.
What makes a Flexiware WMS a feasible choice
- You need WMS to reflect the specifics of your warehouse operations: This WMS can be customized as per the niche requirements and warehouse processes.
- You need WMS for cost-efficient high-volume order processing: (e.g., more than 50,000 order lines per day and a large team to handle them), as enterprise-grade licensing for WMS products incurs extensive perpetual payments.
- You have complex warehouse operations: (multiple picking types, varying demand, diverse SKU portfolio) and need advanced functionality to increase warehouse performance.
If you need a smart solution for efficient inventory management, don’t hesitate to reach out to eRetail Cybertech. Our experts are ready to build a robust solution that will fully meet your unique inventory management needs
