Invest in technology and training

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 12/1/2006

The best warehouse operations invest in technology and employee training, according to researchers at Aberdeen Group.

Researchers surveyed 180 warehouse managers and identified "Best in Class" warehouses that succeeded in reducing costs and shortening order cycle times. Results of the survey are included in the recently released Warehouse Productivity Benchmark Report.

According to the report, these best in class warehouses rely on warehouse management systems (WMS), not spreadsheets, to run their warehouses. They are also more likely to use an up-to-date WMS that is no more than two versions old.

Best in class operations have extensive warehouse visibility infrastructure, allowing them to share information throughout the warehouse operation and across the company. They are also more likely than their peers to have an RFID tagging support system.

As for training, these companies are more likely to cross-train their employees on several tasks. According to the report, the lowest performing companies "more rigidly tether associates to a discrete task."

Also included in the report are statistics on technology adoption rates. Approximately 88% of the companies surveyed use some form of WMS:

• 35% use an in-house/custom WMS
• 35% use a WMS from an ERP vendor
• 18% use a best-of-breed WMS.

The researchers also found many companies extend their core WMS with additional modules and functionality:

• 30% use a dashboard that provides views into order status, etc.
• 29% use a warehouse analytics module for score-carding, metrics and analysis
• 27% use a slotting or layout optimization tool.