Inventory management can sometimes take surprising turns.
One of our clients recently expanded its assortment and thus its inventory management. It almost doubled in size. This meant that the warehouse had to be rearranged. We had stock from several customers in storage. These were close together and simply moving a few racks between them was not an option. Adding an extra location for this customer was not an option either; it is handy to have all items from one customer clearly arranged in one place. So everything had to be changed.
Efficient warehousing
In the end, by moving 2 other inventory management clients, we were able to create enough space. We even built in space for even further expansion of the assortment. Because we were already told that even this year more products would be added. To deal efficiently with these volume expansions, we have chosen compact grab bin racks that can hold 15 SKUs. Now, when a customer’s assortment expands, we can simply insert a rack. In this way we have already created 2 sorting lanes where each customer has x number of racks. In addition, for customers with small products in the assortment, we have two mobile racks on wheels. We can place these wherever we want and as soon as we have finished order picking we can place these racks compactly against each other and possibly against a wall; minimal use of space, maximum stock management.
Digital Inventory Management
Needles to say that in order to have an accurate inventory management you need to have a state-of-the art Warehouse Management System. We work with CloudWMS. Developed by ourselves and updated with the latest technology.
In CloudWMS we can search on a variety of parameters :
- Client
- Product
- Location
- Ordernr.
- Name and/or address details
- Status of orders (new, being picked, ready to ship, shipped)
Most important in this case is of course Product and Location. Both parameters are also logged so we can always check the history of nr. of items against ordernrs. or previous locations, and last but not least; date of arrival in our warehouse.
Putaway of goods on location by certified reachtruck drivers
Sorting
We also have a sorting line that we use to sort assortments. We then go on to label and package those assortments. An example; for a webshop in textile we regularly have to make assortments of 2 pieces size S, 2 pieces size M, 3 pieces size L and 3 pieces size XL. And that of 3 or sometimes more different models and in that again in multiple colors! So you need quite a few boxes before you have everything sorted out. Yet this works very well in practice. We have already had a couple of orders of this kind and have been able to give a good performance so far. The customer was very satisfied, and that’s what it’s all about after all!