Overcoming (old and new) challenges

Warehouses and distribution centers can face challenges that impact everything from inventory management to operational strategy to employee management and more. Some of these challenges are the result of technologies that place new pressures on organizations that aren’t yet equipped to handle them. Some of these pressures are a direct result of how authorities, people, and businesses were forced to adjust to 2020’s global pandemic. Yet, with every challenge also comes opportunity. Below are some of the major challenges that are facing organizations today—and how they can be turned into opportunities.

Pick optimization

Many organizations lack the level of item master data needed for optimal cartonization and ideal facility layout. Without the proper item and location slotting (based on concepts such as seasonality, promotional activities, and sales projections), poor inventory placement across the warehouse often results in increased costs and reduced productivity. Much of that lost time and effort, however, can be reclaimed when organizations implement smarter management of where inventory is kept in a warehouse or distribution center by improving their slotting processes. In addition, enhanced slotting can even enable the strategic selection of optimized picking processes, such as pick to pass, batch picking, pick to light, sorting, voice picking, and more to increase volume and throughput.

Modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are helping businesses around the globe—including your competitors—revolutionize their operations. Manufacturing companies of all sizes are adopting technology that is industry-specific and designed to better manage business processes on an integrated and real-time basis.

Technologically advanced ERP systems are an investment in your company’s operations, efficiency, intelligence, and productivity. Every feature of a modern ERP system ultimately ties back to these improvements, which enable your organization to become more productive, more competitive, and better positioned to meet your customers’ needs.

Regardless of size or industry, asset-intensive organizations are always looking to do more with less. For a food and beverage manufacturer that means finding ways to extend asset life to minimize costs, improve food and worker safety and reduce waste while performing the right maintenance on the right equipment, at the right moment to avoid downtime.

Some businesses have been making do and getting by with asset management strategies that sell them short, driving up the cost of maintenance labor and materials and increasing the risk that critical assets will be down when they’re most urgently needed. The scene has been shifting over the past several years, with Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) offering greater visibility and sophistication for maintenance operations.

But business rarely sits still for very long. And with the rapid rise of Industry 4.0, it’s essential for asset management to keep up. Maintenance 4.0 is the set of tools and strategies that is helping food and beverage companies optimize operations by deploying the mountains of data now available to keep equipment and production lines in peak operating condition. Infor’s Best Practice Guide, “Why your EAM strategy must evolve to increase food safety,” explains how it works and lays out the five essential components of an Asset Performance Management (APM) platform.

Many wholesale distributors tend to view warehouse operations as a cost center due to labor, equipment, physical inventory, and real estate investments. However, with business models rapidly changing through e-commerce, omni-channel engagement, and innovative services, warehouse operations that are re-imagined through investments in technology can empower a company to gain a competitive advantage. Streamlining and automating processes across the warehouse improve customer and employee experiences and inspire customer loyalty.

A recent article featured in Forbes highlighted survey-based research on practice, priority, and expectation trends of warehouse executives. Respondents chose a warehouse management system (WMS) as their highest priority for technology investment with 96 percent of survey participants noting that the warehouse automation value proposition was expected to increase over the next 3 years. Survey findings indicated that operational changes like labor costs, labor shortages, and increased throughput requirements were all primary factors for companies looking to automation.

Partnership offers Infor M3, CSI, and LN customers a solution to accelerate and capture data with intelligent document processing solutions to drive productivity.

Partnership to Manage Warehouse & Supply-Chain Operations, to Help Its Customers Make Smarter, Faster and Better Informed Decisions.

Independent Computer Consulting Group (“ICCG”) has been appointed as Platinum Partner by JASCI Software. JASCI Software is a supply chain acceleration warehouse management software created to meet the needs of omni-channel logistics via the cloud. The strategic partnership is expected to strengthen the ability of both companies to execute their value add and growth strategies.

ICCG is an enterprise software focused consulting firm with a global presence and a track record of more than 2,000 business and digital transformation project executions across ERP, Supply Chain Planning and Execution Systems, Warehouse Management Solutions, Product Life Cycle Management Solutions and Customer Relationship Management solutions deployments.

JASCI’s Cloud Warehouse Management SaaS platform offers a suite of solutions that fit a multitude of operations. Those include Warehouse Management, Warehouse Execution, Warehouse Control Systems, Robotic Execution, Yard Management, Labor Management, 3PL Management, Parcel & Freight Shipping, and more. This is all powered by JASCI’s patented cutting-edge SmartTask workflows technology, which enables unmatched configurability, speedy implementations, and limitless growth for its clients.

Of all the activities that happen in a warehouse, 60% to 70% of costs are attributed to order fulfillment. You can make a significant dent in those costs by making your warehouse management system (WMS) voice-enabled. Utilizing RF wireless belt-mounted devices that incorporate speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies, voice-enabled WMSs have become table stakes for competitive third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and supply chain managers.