|
Introduction to Warehouse Management System (WMS)
Article by Philip de Kock
Pubilshed on 2019-03-19
Warehouse Management using barcode scanning
|
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, put away and picking. An effective system manages stocktakes effectively. The systems also direct and optimise stock put away based on real-time information about the status of bin utilisation. A WMS monitors the progress of products through the warehouse. It involves the physical warehouse infrastructure, tracking systems, and communication between product stations.
More precisely, warehouse management involves the receipt, storage and movement of goods, (normally finished goods), to intermediate storage locations or to a final customer.
Warehouse management systems often utilise automatic identification and data capture technology, such as barcode scanners, mobile computers, wireless LANs to efficiently monitor the flow of products. Once data has been collected, there is either a batch synchronisation with, or a real-time wireless transmission to a central database. The database can then provide useful reports about the status of goods in the warehouse.
Details
|
|
Inventory management options
Ardent X can manage both inventory using serialisation as well as standard inventory numbering.
Full pallets/ containers are managed, breaking pallets is also managed.
Building mixed pallets are managed as well.
Loading of trucks using a picking slip is possible
|
|
|
Receipting of items
Items are received in Ardent X via a delivery note. These items are then barcoded according to the predetermined set of rules, by pallet, by box etc.
Items will be scanned on receipt of the item i.e. when the item is offloaded from the truck. Once the item is placed in a bin it will be required to allocate the item to that bin. (Either manually on the system or via scanning the item and scanning the bin it was placed into). This process is done on some systems by allocating the item into a Receiving area first and then reallocating the item into the bin location.
|
|
|
Issuing of items
If there is a picking list capability on the system, then the items will be selected on the system and the picking list will be printed indicating the bin locations of the item to be picked. The item will be scanned out of the bin location into the dispatch area when it is picked.
|
|
|
Moving of items between locations
When items are moved they will be scanned out of one location and scanned into another location.
|
|
|
Stock take requirements
2 Counts will be performed on all items.
Counts will be conducted in Bin Locations i.e. Scanners must be able to scan the bin location and thereafter scan all items within the bin. Certain items may be smaller items therefore the item barcode will be scanned, but the amount of the items will be typed in on the scanner instead of scanning each item.
|
|
|
Reports
The package has the ability to generate reports on the following as a minimum requirement.
Monthly movement reports across all levels.
Slow moving items.
Minimum stock level reports/Reorder reports.
Stock-take report with variance reports.
Aging Analysis
All reports must be able to be exported to Microsoft Excel.
Search Fields Required
Users must be able to search for items under the following 3 search fields
Item Number
Item Description
Drawing Number
|
|
|
Conclusion
The above brief is based on minimum requirements and additional reports and facilities will be considered.
The system may be used for controlling price in the future therefore the system should have Ordering and pricing/valuation capabilities as well.
Additional fields per item is an advantage as Project number will be an additional field that will be added later on.
|
|
|
Diagraim showing the usage of Hand Helds
|
|
|
Stock items
|
|
|
Hand Held Usage
|
|
|
Stock on Hand Reports
|
|
|
Example of a Transport Container (TC) Label
|
|
|
Security Verifiing Vehcilce Dispatch Schedule
|
|
|
 | Loading… |
|
|
|
|