Author: Paul Henriques in: Business Solutions
Nowadays every facet of your business has a software solution that you can no longer live without. Whether it is Excel, Word, SolidWorks, QuickBooks, or any number of other jumbles of 1s and 0s, the software you use improves your productivity to the point where one person can do the job that once required whole teams.
But what about your warehouse? What are you using to track and find the raw materials, spare parts, packed product, and everything else you keep in inventory? Maybe you have a system in place that has your forklift drivers running around with pen and a clipboard to find the parts that only they know where they put them… Or perhaps you are using tablets and shared spreadsheets.
Improving your warehouse and inventory management software (WIMS) is another crucial part of the manufacturer’s management workbook and here are the ways that a new ERP can help:
Your WIMS should follow, and help you follow, lean manufacturing principles. With apps that can tell you where everything is and how many items you have in stock, you will drastically improve your inventory tracking. This will help move you towards a leaner operation and reduce redundancies in your tasks.
Be sure that you WIMS provider has a forward-thinking mindset and that they are always looking for technological ways to improve their process which, by extension, will improve your operations as well. With things like bar code scanners, mobile apps, automated bots, and AI.
Keeping to spreadsheets or pen-and-paper as a way to document your inventory transactions has one upside: it doesn’t cost you anything… or does it? Missed entries, incorrect transactions, and added time. All these items add to the cost of a process and, in the case of your inventory, to your waste.
A better WIMS with digital tools to interact with your products, like scanners or tablets that feed transactions into your central database, will greatly improve the accuracy of your inventory and the efficiency of your operators. All this together means that you can see a leap in productivity and profitability with a single updated system.
Whether you know of it or not, the wastes in your inventory are eating into your operating profits, raising your costs per product shipped. From misplaced product to being dependant on one or two warehouse operators to have an idea of where everything else, these are wastes that can negatively impact your bottom line.
Improving your warehouse software can clear up many of the bottlenecks you are working with as assumed best practices. Better tracking and monitoring, along with improving the ease to learn the location and layout of your warehouse can work wonders to improve the way your warehouse performs it’s daily functions.
By having your data instantly seen in your central database, you will have a better view to what parts are getting low and what is in demand. This, in turn, will allow you to take better action and make the informed decision that can get you better results.
From tracking defects, scrap, raw materials, tool and machine parts, and everything else, you can get a more accurate picture of your costs and that can be reflected with smarter pricing that can capture more business.
Knowing where your product, parts, and material are located has always been a crucial component of any operation, from building a box of shelves to billion-dollar companies. With advances in technology and improved services, like SaaS, your manufactory can increase its productivity with smarter WIMS tools that will show you what you have in stock and where as it’s happening. Improving your Inventory management is a crucial component of Lean manufacturing and will net you better warehouse efficiency, effectiveness, and profit.
For more information about how OnRamp ERP software can add value to your business fill in the contact form below. A member of our support team will contact you within 1 business day to discuss any questions you have.
Start the collaboration with us while figuring out the best solution based on your needs.
Our efforts began as an internal project of Mancor Industries when we identified the need for a more cohesive ERP system to manage the complexity of multiple plants, multiple products, multiple customers and multiple functions.
Read More
