Warehouse space, no matter how small or large it is, needs proper organization. That impacts the overall efficiency of your business, order processing speed, stock balances, and many other factors. Automation software helps you streamline your work processes in a way that allows you to see the complete picture and control each of your employees' actions. Warehouse automation enables you to lift your business to another operational level, simplify inventory management, improve the control over working processes within warehouses, and minimize the chance for mistakes.
What Tasks Does Warehouse Automation Accomplish?
Warehouse automation allows you to solve multiple tasks and optimize various processes. This instrument gives the ability to see a full operational map, understand what's going on within a warehouse as well as monitor and react upon your current stock balances. Warehouse automation brings some of the following benefits:
- Control the flow of assets: whenever a product arrives at your warehouse, the system collects all the relevant information, making record management for inventory efficient and straightforward. The software fixates the number of goods and their locations, which drastically optimizes the shipment preparation process.
- Inventory management: Automation allows for optimized inventory control. The system minimizes the chance for inventory surpluses, shortages, and spoilage of goods with the shelf life, giving complete control over each of the units within your warehouses.
- Employee workflow optimization: Loader's work is now optimized thanks to detailed information about each product within a warehouse management system. Based on the product statuses and locations, schedules and tasks will be generated individually to provide the fastest possible loading and unloading of inventory.
- Organization of work: Thanks to reporting tools, logistics processes can be easily managed, and decision-makers will get insights regarding ways to effectively reduce expenses, increase revenues, plan, and forecast sales based on the data. That all makes business more productive and ignites growth.
Automatization systems for warehouse management (WMS system) uplift your company to another level and help you optimize all your work-related processes. The integration will not be as expensive as most of the subscription-based options if accumulated for a five-year plan. Obviously, if you operate with just 20 units per day, there's no point in doing so.
However, if there are over 100 types of goods in the workflow, integrations of some inventory management or warehouse management systems would be a must to remain competitive in the modern-day market. The global warehouse automation market is predicted to have 10.41% CAGR growth.
How Does a Warehouse Management System Increase Revenues?
Warehouse automation is not just about comfort and convenience for employees and managers. It directly influences your business's revenues. The question is - how exactly do we increase the revenues with warehousing management systems? It minimizes the chances for idle times, quantities of expired goods, faulty unit counts, lost units, and stolen units. With the system in place, the speed at which workers complete orders will be up to 60% faster, and your business's operational volume will increase. In short, the system will positively affect the revenues in the following manner:
- a warehouse management system keeps your assets safe, under control, and organized;
- proper distribution and organization of assets open up more storage space;
- processing speed is now increased, managers can place more orders;
- cost reduction associated with warehouse optimization allows for more freedom in terms of price regulations for promotions and price-incentive offers;
- the system is built for ongoing improvements, meaning it will scale along with your business; whenever a set of features needs to be added, it can be done without interrupting the existing supply chain processes.
Modern warehousing system integrations bring significant improvements to your warehousing operations, minimize risks, and effectively use the space, reducing costs, expenses and giving you more control over the inventory. The decision to integrate warehouse automation is a repercussion of modern and competent business management thinking.
What Are The Results of an Efficient Warehouse Management System?
Automations for warehousing business processes influence the effectiveness of your company. After the integration, the searching time for a product will be reduced; every employee knows exactly where an asset is located. The results will be noticeable instantly. Employees' productivity levels also increase due to organized task assignment processes, planning, distribution of responsibilities, and improved working methods.
Systematic inventory control gives the ability to reduce overhead expenses by minimizing the number of spoiled goods if an asset has a specific shelf life. Restocking will be done on time, and leftover goods will be sold fast thanks to proper management done by the system. Seeing the complete picture of your inventory, you can make strategic decisions quicker and more accurately.
Your client royalty grows as well. Warehouse automation significantly reduces the risks of sending the wrong item to the wrong customer. The goods are now delivered faster, and the quality of customer service gets better.
Warehouse space optimization brings more ergonomic storage methods, which increases the number of units stored with a warehouse. The chances for item damages during transportation will also be minimized due to proper position management and coordination of storage flow.
The chances for mistakes to occur during paperwork formation decreases, your document flow gets optimized. Instead of manually registering any information, you will be able to generate reports or documents with preset options, drastically changing your order processing speed. A warehouse management system reduces your expenses associated with employee management because their KPIs are now boosted.
Stages of Warehouse Automation
No matter what the size of your warehouse is, automatization of work improves the operational capabilities, minimizes mistakes, and considerably simplifies and optimizes your employees' workflow. The integration of the warehouse management system can be divided into three main stages.
Preparation
Before the development process begins, a software development agency needs to understand the tasks and goals of a business. First, a team of experts analyzes your current situation in regards to operational performance, investigates what processes, instruments, and communication systems are involved. The information collected enables accurate assessment of particular tools needed to improve the work.
Next, the agency develops user stories and defines the system's architecture and logic of how the system and users communicate. During this stage, all preparation tasks and methods become apparent, along with the approximate price and deadlines for each development stage. The result is a detailed plan of what the warehouse management system will look like and how it will be integrated.
Integration
IT architects and software engineers prepare a solution that corresponds to the technical assignment and earlier defined criteria. The technology stack that was selected during the preparation stage will be used to create an instrument that achieves the tasks. Automatization of warehousing business processes makes the company's work straightforward and organized.
At this stage, the system is developed and gets integrated into your business. The agency connects the software to your machines, combines any additional hardware if needed, and tests everything to make sure that the system works as planned. We imitate realistic tasks to eliminate all the defects as if the business performed them for real clients. It is considered the most effective way to capture all the bugs and inconsistencies.
Support
Automated recording of items' data happens within the integrated system. The team of developers teaches all the employees to operate the software and the hardware, including creating accounts for people and items, manipulating the database, and using all the instruments within the system. In the end, your employees begin to actively use the system and make your supply chain processes more efficient.
Conclusion
Automation of warehousing business processes is an integral mechanism for the scalability and growth of a business that deals with physical assets. Automation software allows effective mistake avoidance, boosts employee performance, and optimizes various processes. Integrating new technologies makes your business provide higher quality customer service, increasing revenues while minimizing mistakes. Wezom's approach to developing software is fully custom and client-oriented. Call us or stop by one of our offices and let's build a system that makes your business grow.
What are the types of warehouse management systems?
WMS types range from standalone versions, which operate solo, to integrated ones that sync with systems like ERP. Cloud-based options offer online scalability, while open-source versions allow customization. The system's complexity can cater to global enterprises or small businesses. Some WMS focus on niches like e-commerce or cold storage. Selection hinges on business scale, budget, and operational specifics.
How does a warehouse management system work?
A WMS centralizes warehouse functions, managing inventory and order data. It directs goods receiving, storage, and order fulfillment, using tech like RFID for tracking. It aids in packing, dispatching, and integrates with systems like ERP, optimizing logistics.