Nowadays, the on-demand economy has trained customers to expect their items to be delivered and sometimes returned, almost as fast as the online order is placed. With this attitude in mind, it can arise several operational issues for companies, such as outdated operating systems and a backlog of order fulfilment.
In each company, the warehouse is the hub of your business through which nearly everything passes through. It is estimated that there will be 2.05 billion global digital buyers in 2020, which is expected to increase once more when hitting 2021. Therefore, it is important to stay ahead of the competition to fill orders faster and more accurately than ever.
Step One: Equip Workers with Modern Mobile Technology
Upgrading to a modern mobile device that combines scanning efficiency with touch-screen accuracy, as well as ease of use, will enable workers to validate data in real-time and instantly local the correct items. This will help your front-line workers to complete orders with greater speed and accuracy than before through item-level picking and timely inventory visibility. With real-time access to the Warehouse Management System (WMS), it means that your workers can offer end-to-end solutions promptly during peak times.
Step Two: Improve Staff Communication and Management
Enabling seamless collaborating is essential to the future-ready warehouse. For this to happen, your business needs a fast and efficient task management system, enabled by real-time voice and data communications between supervisors and employees everywhere in the facility. With a task management system, your managers and supervisors can proactively direct work orders and assign tasks that are not currently drive by the WMS, as well as monitor efficiency and progress of work as it is being performed. With a task management integrated into your company work cycle, you are ultimately improving your warehouse’s omnichannel fulfillment capabilities.
Step Three: Get Advanced Inventory and Storage Capabilities
Recent studies from Zebra have shown that the top two cycle-count motivation factors are reduction of out-of-stock conditions and ensuring WMS accuracy. Using a mobile computer with a built-in, state-of-the-art barcode scanner or RFID reader can highly benefit your business to accurately capture barcodes or RFID tag data. By introducing this across your company, you can provide your front-line workers with inventory visibility throughout the supply chain.
Step Four: Streamline Order-Picking Processes
With an up-to-date picking process, you can increase the number of orders processed and reduce errors, as well as conserving time and eliminating out-of-stock items by deducing them as they are picked. A future-ready warehouse is likely to use wearable mobile computers or scanners to dramatically increase the efficient of the specialised workflows within this process.
Step Five: Upgrade Inbound Handling Operations
In a future-ready warehouse, it is vital to use barcode scanning and RFID to operationalise and streamline inbound processes. With this, each warehouse should have integrated advanced shipping notices and global data-sharing standards, as sound receiving processes are the origin of goods visibility throughout the entire supply chain. By doing this, companies will be able to see an increase in accuracy and productivity, as well as being able to reduce waste by ensuring proper stock rotation for either FIFO or LIFO inventory management.
Step Six: Turn Around Outbound Performance
To serve in today’s demanding marketplace effectively, it is vital for your front-line workers to have access to reliable item-tracking technologies, such as barcode or RFID technologies and mobile data capture devices, to complete processes efficiently. These can help to set the stage for order verification, real-time visibility, and dependable tracking while goods are in transit to the customer. Ultimately, this will result in a streamlined delivery, enhanced competitive advantage and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
All of the above was sourced from our friends at Zebra.com.
Contact Synergy Technology
Using the MJM bar code solution for Pegasus Opera, your business can stay on top of today’s demands. For more information, contact Synergy Technology through our enquiry form or give us a call on 0345 456 0050.
