Overcome warehouse challenges with technology

Warehouse Management System

Warehouses are at the core every manufacturing plant. But many problems can challenge their efficiency leading to bottlenecks for overall operations.  What are the possible solutions to minimize the impact of common internal logistic problems? Let’s dive in.

1. The  4 main problems impacting warehouse management  

2.Smart solutions to solve problems 

3.D-ONE: intelligent warehouse management system 

1. The 4 main problems impacting warehouse management 

 

The challenging moment the Supply Chain world is living is nothing new.  

As a result, many companies are reorganizing their internal logistics processes to face this completely new reality, often starting from the place where “logistics of supplying” and “logistics of production” meet: the warehouses. The warehouses themselves are becoming one of the main points of weakness of such companies, being compounded by inefficiencies and waste. 

Among the most common problems in warehouse management, we can highlight: 

  • Inventory Inaccuracies and inefficient space management (missed system functionalities, inefficient layout, missed material handling operation optimization, incorrect handling of goods without system checks, etc)
  • Not optimized material flow and material handling operations and forklift/vehicle route. 
  • Lack of standardized processes and system capabilities (traceability, ineffective inventory management, no KPI, Efficient shopfloor replenishment) 
  • Poor coordination between departments (missed strategy of end-to-end connected supply chain)

2. Smart solutions to solve problems

As affirmed by Gartner in the eBook “Reinventing Supply Chain for the Future”, based on 983 respondents in 2021, 60% of Chief Supply Chain Officers are expected to make faster, more accurate and consistent decisions in real-time. 

“Accelerate investments in supply chain technology to enable real-time analytics as a step on the path toward real-time execution. Don’t get stuck focusing on the first phase of real-time analytics and delay investments that get you to the end goal of end-to-end automated execution.” 

With this in mind, how can the management of the warehouses still be manual or simply rely on the common sense of the operators? 

Warehouses need now more than ever to depend on technology to manage their internal activities in a quick, clear, and efficient way. Implementing an intelligent warehouse system placed at the core of supply chain and manufacturing operations, you will be able to have an alignment between physical and logical assets/flows. In this way, all the activities within the walls of warehouses (managing inventory, receiving, quality inbound process, picking and packing, shopfloor replenishment and shipmentcan be monitored in real-time and optimized to increase performance and reduce costs. 
Always quoting Gartner, 43% of enterprises will continue to digitalize and integrate innovative technology into enterprise-wide systems. Did we finally reach a New Era for warehouse and material handling? 
Identification, Material Handling & Mission

3. D-ONE: Intelligent warehouse management system

The main intent of D-ONE intelligent warehouse system is to automate a large-scale process that involves material movements in the warehouse and in the shopfloor.  

It can manage various types of warehouse and shopfloor storage locations and bins (kanban, supermarket, stack). The system can manage various constraints for storage locationsnumber of containers, fix or dynamic allocation, multi part-number, weight, height, package type, quality, consignment, etc…  

It includes a configurable workflow for multipath steps and it has a smart optimizer for : ABC class management, FIFO, lot split on the aisle, material re-shuffling and warehouse reorganization. 

D-ONE optimizes all warehouse and material handling activities using smart algorithms that allow real-time decision-making and prioritization, intelligent routing and real-time visibility (including AI/ML technology). The system applies lean methodologies (e.g. pull strategy), visual management and cognitive analytics and it’s natively integrated with D-ONE MES module. D-ONE applies a pull logistics strategy to ensure that all products and materials are in the right place according to demand, and replenished on time while ensuring that inventory reports are accurate and reliable.  
Replenishment operations

It manages the shopfloor replenishment in automatic or semi-automatic: automatic material requests are triggered by shopfloor picking and kanban reorder level or dynamically analyzing the material required by the current production order (using bill of material and machine buffer configuration). 

Consider a warehouse, which involves storage and then later retrieval of items that will constitute the shopfloor material requests: the storage and retrieval functions will be automated and guided by the system. As well, every material movement inside the shopfloor is coordinated by the system. Operators use the mobile or web app to get informed and execute new material movement missions and perform all relevant warehouse activities. The system is coordinated all activities ensuring the execution of the mission while optimizing the resource workload.   

The system constantly monitors the performance and generates alerts and escalation when a mission is delayed or when the material is not available.  

With regards to quality, the system keeps the sync with the batch quality status with ERP. As well, it enhances the process managing of the quality status at the container level, ensuring you could take the quality usage decision for the entire batch or for a specific container. It provides capabilities for the quality inbound process (inspection strategy, free pass status, etc), scrap, rework and return to the vendor.  

With regards to the shipment process, the system ensures the execution and control of the full process, from delivery & cargo planning to forklift missions’ coordination, picking & packing, cargo loading, and shipping documents print 

D-ONE measures KPI and monitors the warehouse and material handling activities (material requests, replenishment activities, missions, etc.). Visual boards will help to have a real-time view of all ongoing activities in a warehouse.
The platform organizes and coordinates all material handling activities and escalations. It ensures proper resources utilization optimizing resource workload and vehicle route.
D-ONE can easily be integrated with common ERP (SAP, Oracle, Infor, Business Central,…). Also, it can integrate various automatic systems, like automatic warehouse (ASRS), automatic vehicle (AGV / LGV), lean lift and collaboration
robot. Moreover, it offers a standard API interface for external system integration.

Here are some examples of how d-one can solve your warehouse problems and the related benefits:

The days of out-of-date warehouse processes and of wasted time and money are long gone. Technology can give companies a lot of options to improve and to face challenges. Now is time to take these opportunities. Will you keep up?