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Introduction
The majority of the problems that occur in the warehouse occur because of a lack of
control: a lack of inventory control, operational control and/or management control. To
become a dynamic, consistent organization, all the operations must be under “control”. In
order to achieve this control, all the tools and technology available has to be used to get
control and manage the warehouse operations. A control system is a means, mechanism
or procedure by which we manage these operations. There are three basic objectives of a
control system, either manual or computerized:
Warehouse Functions
To have a better understanding of the requirements of a warehouse and thus, the benefits
of the warehouse management systems we first introduce the basic functions of the
warehouse and then we can get into the benefits of having a WMS implemented in the
daily operations.
Traditionally a warehouse performs four basic functions: (1) receive product, (2) store
product, (3) pick product and (4) ship product.
2.1. Receiving.
The basic functions in the receiving area are: the packaging of raw materials from
suppliers, finished goods from manufacturers and other sources, and customer returns.
Generally, receiving operations have two major needs:
• The need to have accurate receipt information with advanced notice, this
facilitates the receiving operations by providing accurate and quick information
from the sender’s host system directly to a WMS. This system translates receipt
information into usable information for dock activity planning, order release and
inventory allocation.
• The need to reduce the time the product spends in staging. A WMS minimizes the
time the product sits in staging due to operator-directed put-away and system-
directed put-away and system-directed put-away locations.
2.1. Storage.
The basic functions in the storage area are: quality inspection, put-away, product location
and lot control and crossdock operations. The typical needs with respect to product
storage are:
• The need to have adequate identification and tracking of product that are ready for
put-away.
• The need to have an automatic selection of storage locations for pallets loads,
designed to maximize space utilization, picking efficiency and minimize retrieval
or put-away labor.
• The need for a stock location system that tracks identity and quantity of each SKU
by unique storage location (in order to ensure product trace ability to customer).
• The real-time update of inventory, locations of lot and stock records to provide
timely information. The more real-time update, the greater the reduction in the
information lead time.
• Crossdocking.
2.2. Picking
The basic functions in the picking area are: raw material picking, work in progress
picking and finished goods picking. The shipping needs of a warehouse typically include:
• The need to select specific storage locations for picking based parameters such as
lot number, stock rotation, order quantity and pick location.
• The need to minimize pick travel distance and multiple handling by pre-route and
pre-post customer orders in storage location sequence.
Again the need for a stock location system is essential, since it provides a the foundation
for efficient order picking. The picking functionality provided by a WMS is designed to
exploit the existence of the stock location system to further maximize the picking
efficiency. The ability of the computerized control system allows to minimize the picker
travel time between picks and maximize actual time spend picking during discrete
picking.
2.3. Shipping
The typical shipping needs include:
• The routing of picked goods to predetermined staging lanes for order control and
consolidation from multiple pick zones.
The shipping functions are designed to maximize the control of orders moving through
packing, checking and loading. In addition, bill-of-landing, packing list, and customer file
updating are used to minimize manual clerical tasks to reduce labor and improve
accuracy and customer service.
• The ability to track and access order status from order entry through shipping.