SAP Business One is a reliable tool a company can use to optimize multi-warehouse management. The software can also help expand your e-commerce or 3PL enterprise. An efficient warehouse management system can help streamline most business operations, such as optimizing your supply chain, shipping processes, improving sales, e.t.c.
Expanding to a new warehouse means that your business is booming. Therefore you have to practice the best warehouse management practices to keep all your warehouses running efficiently with little or no monitoring. SAP Business One can implement multi-warehouse management processes that will help you keep up with demand and build a positive reputation for the company. Here is what you need to know about multi-warehouse management.
Let us begin,
What is in a warehouse management system?
Warehouse management is the practice of organizing and controlling all items in a warehouse and ensuring all processes run seamlessly as possible. Inventory management, maintaining and acquiring proper equipment, managing new stock, tracking warehouse functions and performance, and picking, packing, and shipping orders are some aspects of warehouse operations.
A warehouse management system is critical in keeping your warehouse processes running. Before selecting a warehouse management system, you should consider the unique aspects of your business, especially if you are managing multiple warehouses.
SAP Business one is an ideal warehouse management system that integrates and automates most of your business processes. If your current warehouse management system is not fulfilling your operational needs, you can upgrade to SAP Business One. It gives accurate, digitalized, real-time data that will streamline all your multi-warehouse management practices.
Measuring warehouse performance
When managing multiple warehouses, you need to measure the performance of each warehouse. Companies need to track and the performance of the warehouses and improve their working capacity. Here are a few ways you can measure the performance of a warehouse.
1. The order lead time
It is the average processing time of an order from the warehouse to the customer. Customers are happier when their orders get delivered promptly and with good quality products. There are two categories of customers: international orders and Amazon Prime orders. The order lead time can help track the performance of your warehouse. Use SAP Business One to achieve shorter order lead time capacity for excellent customer service.
2. Accuracy in picking
The accuracy of your warehouse in picking orders or items can help measure warehouse performance. Using the difference of the total number of orders within a certain period and the incorrect items, you can calculate the accuracy of picking by dividing the overall order total by a hundred.
3. Efficiency in receiving
It refers to the time taken by your warehouse team to complete the process of receiving and storing new purchase orders. You can get the difference between the time spent on each point to get the average efficiency in receiving items for that month. Efficiency in receiving is a reliable measure of the performance of warehouse operations.
4. Calculating the rate of return
Calculating the rate of return can also help in measuring the performance of your warehouse. The rate of return is the number of times orders have gotten returned to the warehouse. You can determine the rate of return of each warehouse in multiple warehouse management setups to get the overall performance of your business.
How to improve warehouse operations
It can be complicated to improve the operations of multiple warehouses, but software like SAP Businesses can help with this eminently. The more warehouses you run, the more your operations should run smoothly. You can optimize processes such as the warehouse layout, putaway, and picking process, and automation of procedures to help improve your warehouse operations.
1. Optimizing the warehouse layout
An optimal warehouse layout ensures the excellent placement of products, proper arrangement of equipment, and excellent flow of people and equipment in your warehouse. Optimizing your warehouse layout can enable you to improve your warehouse operations. The more warehouses you create, the more efficient you should reconfigure your current warehouse layout to ensure the best flow of activity in your new warehouse.
2. Optimizing putaway and picking processes
To avoid disruptions in other warehouses, you must ensure the picking and putaway processes flow smoothly. In a multi-warehouse environment, you can consider employing cross-docking and wave picking practices to streamline your picking and putaway processes.
3. Automation of processes
Automation can help streamline slower processes in a multi-warehouse management setup. SAP Business One can help you automate most warehouse functionalities to achieve the ideal packing of orders, order routing systems, and much more.
How to manage inventory across multiple warehouses
Apart from knowing the type of stock you have in your inventory, you should also know they are in which warehouse, especially if they are far apart. For effective multi-warehouse management, you should consider investing in a warehouse management system capable of managing multiple warehouses, like SAP Business One, and solidifying the companies inventory management practices to avoid unnecessary stockouts.
Advantages of a multi-warehouse management system
A multi-warehouse management system helps you receive data in real-time and access it on the cloud through any device. It also enables warehouse managers to view segmented data on warehouse inventory and create multiple warehouses within the system. It is also ideal for quickly initiating the transfer of goods between warehouses and intelligent order routing processes where they automatically travel to the warehouses where they are in stock.
The pick path optimization option is available in several multi-warehouse management systems, allowing managers to determine the best path to pack and place products. Your e-commerce business or 3PL ware operation can benefit from 3D packing software.
Bottom Line:
SAP Business One and other warehouse management systems streamline multi-warehouse management. The success of multi-warehouse management depends on individual warehouses running smoothly.
Therefore, integrating a multi-warehouse management system that optimizes the operations of each warehouse can help boost productivity and scalability. Call us today to incorporate SAP Business One in your multi-warehouse management systems to streamline your warehouse operations for rapid growth and expansion of your business.