Management + Systems

Here Jon Roberts, marketing manager for OrderWise Stock Control and Order Processing Software, looks at how effective stock control can be the platform for a successful business.

All too often businesses see stock control and warehouse management as a separate or secondary activity to other business areas such as sales. However, stock control is the backbone and driving force of many business operations with key touch points throughout nearly all main business activities.

Far beyond the simple notion of booking stock in and out, effective stock control helps ensure cash flow is managed by optimising stockholdings; maximising sales through availability of the right stock in the right place at the right time; and increases profitability by providing true landed costs and margin at the order level.

As businesses grow, the need for effective stock control grows too and requirements for more comprehensive warehouse management capabilities arise. Many companies can find growth stalls as existing warehouse processes are no longer able to meet the throughput of higher sales volumes. While employing more staff can provide a short-term solution, ultimately this increases the fulfilment cost per order to a level that is unsustainable and uncompetitive. The answer is a software solution that enables warehouse operations to become more efficient, more accurate, and more productive, yet flexible enough to meet the specific requirements of the business it serves.

In recent years more companies have begun to realise the importance of structured inventory management, implementing new software to help better manage their daily warehouse activities along with their commercial and financial business operations. This notion has also coincided with a rise in businesses turning to barcode scanning – using standard or more flexible GS1 barcodes within their warehouse to help streamline processes. By introducing barcode scanning as part of a structured warehouse management solution, businesses are able to see dramatic increases in the levels of efficiency, accuracy and order throughput achieved, with profitability and space for competitiveness also raised as a result.

However, it is no secret that introducing a new warehouse management system requires careful preparatory work. To ensure the fastest possible return on investment and full benefits are achieved, many companies recognise that the existing layout of their warehouse also needs to be overhauled. The issue is not all businesses have the required level of knowledge, experience, and resource internally, to identify the improvements that need to be made, such as how best to configure walk routes, position stock and manage picking.

Therefore although it is clear that there are significant companywide benefits that businesses can gain from focusing on getting the right stock management processes in place, companies need to also find a supplier that offers the right level of expertise combined with the extensive experience needed to deliver the right overall solution across the entire business.

www.orderwise.co.uk