Tom Andel

WMS: Things you should know
March 27, 2008

I hosted a webcast on Distribution Center Survival strategies this week. It didn’t require much work on my part. Ian Hobkirk, senior analyst for Aberdeen Research, did all the heavy lifting—talking, I should say.

His presentation on the economy and advanced picking strategies really made the connection between this country’s economic health and what you do for a living. In fact, during the Q/A period toward the end of the program, the audience and I peppered Ian with questions that elicited insights that I'm sure made our audience glad they sat in on this webcast.

Here are some soundbites, in case you weren’t in on the event:

On advanced picking strategies:

Get out of the mode of thinking that because you have to ship in one package that you have to pick it to one package at the same time. You may have five different people picking items for the same order at the same time into different containers but it all ends up in the same box at the end of the process. Separate the pick process from the way it goes out the door. To do this you need a thorough analysis of data, i.e., what your daily volumes are, your percent of line item commonality in an order, and how that maps to your bin structure in the warehouse. For one order, what percentage of geography in the warehouse would someone have to cover to pick all the lines on it? That may steer you to zone picking. How fast are your fast movers and how many orders are there in relation to the number of fast-moving SKUs? That may steer you to batch.

On using 3PLs on the way to WMS implementation:

If your WMS investment won’t be for another three years, it makes sense to look at a third-party logistics provider (3PL) in the interim. A company I worked with in the last recession that did not have a WMS was in this cycle of just throwing labor at the problem. They couldn’t justify spending money on software but they were incrementally adding a tremendous amount of labor. They ultimately decided to work with a 3PL for their needs because they weren’t able to make a software purchase at the time.

On the value of a WMS’s task interleaving function:

A big use for task interleaving is with cycle counting. Instead of having a dedicated person doing cycle counting, just work it into the daily workflow of the warehouse. As I’m standing at this bin picking something, before I go to my next pick the system will tell me to count the items that are two bins away from me and confirm that inventory is accurate. If you’re evaluating a WMS, ask about task interleaving and ask if you’ll have to spend extra money to turn it on.

On the role of a WCS (Warehouse Control System):

Most high speed automated warehouses still have a WCS and if you’re doing high speed sortation (200-300 cases per minute), the WMS struggles to feed the data to the machine level controls fast enough to make the necessary decisions to support that. Some vendors have built their WMS around interfacing with warehouse automation, but even with those companies it’s not the WMS itself, it’s a WCS that interfaces with machine level controls.

On when to print shipping labels:

In most cases it’s possible to print labels up front if you have accurate weights and dimensions. That means if you have a good multi-carrier manifesting system, you ought to be able to determine which carrier you’ll use up front instead of having to weigh after the fact then decide which carrier to use. No reason not to print that shipping label ahead of time, use it as the unique identifier on the box as it travels through your DC then do a quick verification weigh and electronic manifesting downstream.

On paperless receiving:

In a paper intense receiving environment you have at least three pieces of paper: the bill of lading that comes in with the truck driver, a vendor purchase order that you print out or pull from a file cabinet, and the paper labels you’ll put on the product. You’re typically marking up the PO with what you received vs what you were supposed to receive. With paperless receiving the bill of lading still comes in but you take the number off it, key it into a handheld computer and it polls the system for what’s supposed to be on the order. You’ll still do labeling but you’ll either have pre-printed bar coded labels or if you’re using a mobile printer you’ll print those on the fly with little human interaction. Paper is no longer the tracking or control mechanism in this scenario.

On green packaging:

The WMS can play a role in designing environmentally friendly packaging if you have to repack into some kind of shipping container. If you don’t know what’s going to go into the box and you’re trying to pick to the container without the benefit of a WMS, you’re guessing. That means you’ll get a bigger box to save trouble downstream if everything doesn’t fit. The Cartonization function of a WMS has a lot of direct labor benefits, but it also has a good indirect benefit of reducing the amount of waste packaging. In addition to gathering cube information, it helps you determine the optimal box sizes for your range of products.

(The entire webcast is now available on-demand via this link: http://www.mmh.com/webcastsDetail/2140164337.html.)

Posted by Tom Andel on March 27, 2008 | Comments (0)