Do you have a warehouse management system (WMS) maintenance schedule before peak season?
There is a strategy for maintaining each of your essential investments:
- You are aware of when your vehicle requires an oil change.
- You are aware of when to change the filters in your appliances.
- When your selection procedure requires evaluation, you are aware.
As the adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Why should your fulfillment centers’ personnel, procedures, and technology be any different?
When was the last time your WMS warehouse management system was subjected to a stress test prior to the busy season?
Where should your efforts be focused?
Prior to the beginning of the peak season, a number of duties must be completed. Following the categorization, we will discuss what you should study for optimal performance.
Facility
For optimal fulfillment performance, your facility must be in optimal condition. Examine critical areas and implement any necessary solutions as soon as possible.
Space use
It is essential to make flexible use of floor space during peak hours. You must designate areas in advance for surplus, floor storage, and expedited picking. Then, evaluate your process with these temporary changes.
Equipment servicing
Ensure that maintenance was performed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Close out any outstanding, delayed repair orders. When high-throughput demand is placed on these assets, you desire for them to be in pristine condition.
Important Initiatives
The anticipated alterations for the peak season will be postponed until the following year. Ensure that your plans (output, personnel, training) accommodate for the actual features you will have, as they may differ from what was promised.
People
Your facilities require extensive labor. In the majority of facilities, the majority of warehouse administration tasks are still performed manually. Are the necessary number and caliber of personnel assembled?
Team Size
During periods of excessive demand, numerous enterprises hire additional employees. Ensure that you’ve employed an adequate number of temporary workers and consider how you can maintain flexibility by maintaining strong relationships with on-demand labor agencies and recruiting firms.
Introduction and Skills Training
Have new warehouse management or automation systems been implemented? Ensure that your teams have received the proper training and orientation to effectively utilize the technology. Perform some role-playing; do not assume that all information was retained. Don’t forget to offer additional assistance subsequently.
Workforce Management (WFM)
Modern WFM solutions are able to manage shift personnel as well as intra-facility repositioning. Individuals who have completed their duties in the receiving area can be redirected to the packaging and shipping area. Historically, this was a manual process, but when task failures are detected, newer solutions can perform it automatically.
Employees are Human
Ensure you are aware of who has additional responsibilities. Most people do not live to work. Employees will maintain high morale and loyalty if they meet their personal and professional obligations.
The Procedure
Typically, processes are designed for one thing: average daily volume that can be predicted. Many processes are not designed for situations of maximal flux and can fail catastrophically under such conditions. All warehouse management scenarios must be rehearsed in order to maintain business continuity.
Cycle Count
Draw a random list of SKUs and evaluate the accuracy of your inventory if you haven’t performed one recently. Unless the veracity of your website transcends 99.9% (depending on your industry), you may be in for some unpleasant surprises. Be sure to investigate the numbers to determine if certain departments have a lower level of accuracy, which could conceal process issues or even deception.
Select, Pack, and Stock
Ensure that the warehouse management procedures are executed as specified. Understand the rationale behind workarounds and emphasize exceptions. Where applicable, update the procedure and retrain for uniformity.
Volume Stress
Construct and carry out a cycle that surpasses 110-120% of your previous peak’s most taxing shift. Examine failures. Was this possible? What failed to keep pace? Prior to encountering actual situations in which demand exceeds fulfillment processes, identify and correct as much as feasible.
Inventory / Forecast Assessment
Les prévisions become less accurate the further in advance they are made. It is possible to plan for preliminary demand one year in advance. Have you evaluated it recently? Are early sales emphasizing the SKUs you anticipated, or are they emphasizing something substantially different? It is possible to modify incoming orders by analyzing sales data from mid-year events such as Amazon Prime Days.
Technological advancement
Despite all of its benefits, technology adds a new area for pre-peak season enhancement. Ensure the physical and digital systems deployed are prepared for the challenge. From transportation to communication to execution, these will serve as the foundation for exceptional performance.
WMS Warehouse Management System
Utilizing obsolete technology to address contemporary issues? This increases the probability of inventory system failures, late/missed deliveries, excessive costs, and customer apologies.
Avoid another January review with your CFO asking why sales have increased but margins have declined. All justifications are eliminated by modern warehouse management systems (WMS).
Material Handling Equipment
If you have deployed any form of new MHE, it must also undergo stress testing. These instruments enable tremendous productivity, but they have a limit beyond which they cannot continue to function. Consider the location of all equipment when conducting an evaluation of the facility.
Connectivity to WIFI and the Internet
Internet connectivity is more important than ever for business operations. Internet access is now required for essential functions on mobile devices and workstations alike. When this fails, operations terminate relatively quickly, leading to substantial losses. This is particularly crucial given the increased use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in recent years. Collaborate with your IT team to stress-test the network from multiple locations throughout the building. Identify and eradicate inactive regions in addition to replacing faulty hardware.
External
Not everything that can fail exists within the four walls of the warehouse.
Vendor Obligations
Do not assume that your vendors will satisfy their delivery deadlines.Determine the most essential items in your assortment. Contact these vendors to ensure that they are not late. It will be difficult to recuperate from a cascading failure induced by past-due receipt dates during peak season. You can also utilize supply chain management software to keep track and manage your goods and suppliers.
Review of Volume Committed to Contract
What is the minimal order quantity? Is your business a high priority? Get in touch with your suppliers and service providers for an update. It is essential to secure commitments for seasonal demand, as the majority of businesses do not operate with constant flow. Frequently, you will be required to pre-purchase up to 50 percent of your anticipated volume, but you will have the assurance that you can scale up to 100 percent if demand increases. Compare this to your list of requirements.
Virtual Locations and Third-Party Logistics Companies
This relates to the previous topics. If you are leveraging offsite and it is not a routine function, you must include it in each of the aforementioned stress testing as soon as possible.
Utilize the same quality control procedures for your virtual facilities as you would for a new physical structure.
This has nothing to do with your personnel, processes, or technologies, but rather your third-party logistics providers. Despite their remarkable adaptability, the same risk of process failure applies to these.
