According to a recent study from the OECD 45% of businesses experienced supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic. Consequently, warehouses had to find new ways to optimize their practices.
The start of a new year is the perfect time to gear up and make improvements to your warehouse and to create a safe, efficient, and productive work environment. If you’re looking for inspiration, here are the top challenges in warehouse management in 2022 and some great New Year’s Resolutions to get you started.
Inventory inaccuracy, searching for materials in vain, lack of space and bad time management are still common pain points in warehouses.
Inventory Inaccuracy
When manufacturers don’t have full visibility to their inventory, they face the problems of either running out of stock at the wrong time or carrying too much stock and thus decreasing cash flow while increasing expenses to warehouse extra materials. At the end, inventory inaccuracy translates into storage expenses or lost sales.
Inventory shortages can further lead to unfulfilled orders and unhappy customers and corresponding lost revenue. Moreover, inventory accuracy and efficiency go hand in hand. Picking problems rise when pickers rely on inaccurate information, leading to inefficient processes and increased expenses.
Better Inventory Management
Mismanaged inventories can cause significant financial problems including being presented with a shortage or overflow of stock and although adequate training should be provided as standard, the New Year is a great opportunity to refresh your employees knowledge and improve your training processes to ensure that your staff know where everything is, and don’t forget to update any signage and labelling to make the process easier for all involved.
For problems derived from inaccurate manual records and from a lack of merchandise monitoring, we suggest using an inventory management software that helps create accurate and transparent outfitting and ensure invoices match the purchasing orders. NC Vision’s Solution helps you gain real-time, accurate information about stock levels. Assign items to location by scanning unique serial numbers to part and location. From chaotic to fixed location, from simple picking to pick lists that follow specific routes, we cover everything.
Lack of space
Efficient use of space remains a critical success factor in warehousing in 2022. Inadequate storage space as well as inefficient use of available spaces are common problems in warehouses with poor facility layout. The problem of not having enough space is that the goods will keep on accumulating inadequately, which may result in time lost in locating the products, a loss of quality of the merchandise or even work accidents.
Rearrange Your Warehouse
Searching for materials in vain and not having enough storage because of ineffective use of space are still common pain points in warehouses. Putting together an optimal warehouse layout can solve this problem.
It makes sense to organise your warehouse so that workers can easily locate products and parts based on the category. How about rearranging your workspace to make more accessible those parts that get moved more often? It will save you time and effort in the long run.
This includes maximizing use of the floor space and vertical space while leaving enough room for warehouse employees to pass through. It also means looking into ways to use automation and equipment to reduce labor and labor costs, improving the accessibility of products in the warehouse, categorizing inventory in a systematized way, and ensuring that inventory is stored safely.
To ensure the best use of the available space, we must improve the storage systems, the picking routes, and the layouts of spaces and shelves, particularly in the reception area. Our solution allows you to increase the efficiency of the picking by assigning items to locations by scanning unique serial numbers to part and location. Moreover, with NC-Vision Toolbox for Production & Traceability you can monitor stock levels and execute actions depending on them.
Incorrect time management
Tired of late delivery of materials to the line leading and production stoppages? You can improve this issue by optimizing picking and the location of the inventory. Not knowing the location of products precisely impacts execution times and delays the whole supply chain.
Improve Turnaround Speed
Not having the right procedures, using the wrong equipment or not hiring enough employees at the busiest times of the year can all affect the efficiency levels of a warehouse when it comes to quick turnaround times. So think about how you can improve this performance, from employing more seasonal staff to opting for a better Warehouse Management Solution.
If you’re struggling to improve operational efficiency, consider streamlining your workflow with mobile devices that provide real-time updates to operators. You’ll definitely put an end to endless searching for lost parts or stressful overtime to avoid production stoppages. And as a side-effect, you’ll get a clear picture of your logistics operators’ activity.
A solution is to invest in technology, such as a modern warehouse execution system (WES), that will help you automate the processes that are prone to redundancy in your warehouse. This not only saves a lot of time but also reduces the human error factor.For instance, to help reduce redundancy in order picking, you could use barcode technology to scan the products that have been picked for the order and have the system notify the user of any duplicates.
Data-driven decisions
Data analytics is already an essential aspect of warehouse operations, from inventory management and shipment tracking to monitoring consumer preferences; but new advancements in software and technology have allowed facilities to optimize long-overlooked processes. Warehouse operators are now adopting modern, data-driven solutions to increase workflow efficiency and productivity.
Upgrade Your WMS
Warehouse management systems can monitor facility metrics in real time to highlight any inefficiencies and identify and prevent potential technical issues from occurring. Utilizing these tools to drive decision-making and streamline processes will allow operators to reduce long-term costs for their warehouses
Your WMS should enable you to focus on customer-facing applications, allowing for maximum configuration to your unique business practices while adapting to changing market demands and regulatory requirements, so consider whether your current system is strengthening or hindering your ability to execute business strategies.
Ready to rich your New Year’s resolutions? With NC Vision’s complete Warehouse Management Solution with built-in traceability, you can plan more efficient gathering routes that result in shorter response times and greater employee productivity. Together with our solution consultants, discover which modules will help you most, reduce your inventory levels and picking up times or add traceability if required by your important clients -without breaking the bank.
We found in NC Vision a flexible partner, with a high level of experience… In only six weeks the system was running, and all requested modifications were provided in the specified time. Now we are able to deliver in time and the right amounts of the raw materials to the assembly lines.
