How familiar are you with warehouse management? Very familiar, semi-familiar, or not at all familiar this post gives you more insight on what warehouse management is and why it is so important. Warehouse management serves to create ease in inventory movement whether it be packaging, shipping, or receiving. Having a good warehouse management software is essential to bridging the gap between many products in the warehouse and management.
How to Improve Your Warehouse Management
Many small businesses believe that they can only use warehouse management software once they can no longer control their inventory – this is false! You must have a substantial operations strategy in place from the smallest of businesses to the largest. For you small to medium business owners, by having a warehouse management system in place from the get-go you give your company the ability to scale in the future. This saves your administrators tedious work as you grow and is a crucial link to good supply chain.
Start Early
Warehouse management is not as simple as just putting everything in place, it involves much more. You need to begin early to maximize your productivity all the while cutting costs and time. While there are some things you can do without software such as labeling others like RFID, barcodes, and scanners need software. You must begin your warehouse management with upkeep. You must constantly make sure your warehouse is organized and your systems are up to date.
Increasing Logistics
As your company expands your logistics often become more involved. What are the best ways for you to expand supply chain and minimize costs all while keeping customers happy? Once you expand you need to be sure that all employees are able to access your inventory levels across all warehouses you have. It is critical to be able to know what you have in real time.
Organization
Again, as your company expands you need to be sure your warehouses are extremely organized. You will need a system to tell your warehouse management and employees the exact location of your inventory within that warehouse. Also, be sure to have proper training for warehouse management. By having the exact location of each product held in inventory in a warehouse management software you are able to cut down time in which employees are searching for a product.
Upkeep
Be sure to constantly keep up to date with where your inventory is located. Is it easily accessible to your employees and safely accessible? Where are your fastest selling or moving products located? What do you do with damaged goods? The best way to be sure everything is in line is to have a checklist that your managers go through each day to be sure every item is where it is meant to be.
Placement
The easiest way to keep track of where your high-volume items are by placing those in the closest to the shipping area of the warehouse for easy access. This should only be available for you well known items that sell quickly or are constantly shipped out of the warehouse. By having these goods closer to the shipping area, you save time and your employees will thank you. You also want to be sure you and your managers are implementing quality control. This will help to eliminate any incorrect shipments or packages.
Space
Do you have random spaces in your warehouse that just house piles of unused goods, or have nothing in the space? Any space that is not utilized in a warehouse needs to be examined. As well as areas with high or low fill rates. Be sure that all space within the warehouse is used to its best potential. You want each little space to be used to its efficiency.
Final Thoughts
Although you may have a smaller company right now, implementing this might seem unnecessary; however, this is one of the best ways to prepare you for growth in the future. With small orders in the beginning it may seem cumbersome but believe us when those few orders become thousands a day it makes a world of difference. If you have a large company then you are most likely aware of warehouse management that needs to be done for your company. If you are not aware of what needs to be done you certainly want to look into it. Warehouse management. The more planning the better your warehouse management and supply chain will be! Contact MobiSoft and we would be happy to talk to you about to improve your wholesale business. If you’d like, we can even tell you about our game-changing mobile ordering management software, Mobi4!
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