Learn about warehouse KPIs to benchmark and regularly review to improve operational performance and inventory accuracy.
- Topic:
- ERP
Inventory management and warehouse management systems both play a critical role in helping ecommerce businesses save time, automate processes and gain a competitive edge.
You may think these systems serve the same purpose, and while there is some overlap between them, there are key differences in the capabilities and benefits of the two.
In this article, we explore what makes a warehouse management system (WMS) different from inventory management systems (IMS), the benefits they share and how you can combine both in one easy-to-use solution.
- Topic:
- ERP
Delivering orders accurately and on time hinges on your picking and packing process. Read on to discover the most effective strategies for boosting efficiency.
- Topic:
- ERP
Step into a fulfilment warehouse today and you are likely to see an array of robots performing tasks that would otherwise drain the valuable time and effort of workers.
From autonomous vehicles that roll around the warehouse floor transporting items, to robots that pick and pack items with impressive speed, warehouse automation technology is advancing fast.
However, robots in warehouses, distribution centres and factories are nothing new, with those used today the product of over seventy years of evolution.
Vehicles that followed wires embedded in the factory floor first emerged in the 1950s. A decade later, bulky storage and retrieval systems were automating item retrieval in warehouses. By the 1980s, hydraulic robotic arms were picking and assembling items with impressive dexterity.
Now, companies like Amazon have over 750,000 robots working alongside staff. The fulfilment giant will soon even debut a bipedal humanoid robot ‘Digit’ that can walk across the warehouse floor picking and packing items just like a human.
So besides those of the humanoid variety, what other forms of robotic automation are fulfilment companies using in their supply chain today? Read on to learn all about the increasingly advanced robots changing the way fulfilment warehouses operate.
- Topic:
- ERP
From software that manages inventory, to platforms that focus on warehouses and others specifically catering to order fulfilment, there are now so many solutions available that target every aspect of ecommerce.
In this article, we will focus on comparing inventory management and order management systems – two types of software that while sharing some similar features, are also different in very important ways.
Read on to learn all about these two solutions, their specific use cases and how they can work together. By the end, you should have a clear idea which one is the better fit for your business’s needs.
- Topic:
- ERP
Today’s online customers not only have higher expectations but also hold more power than ever before. Spoilt by the choice of myriad online retailers all vying for their custom, it only takes one late or incorrect order to see them make their next purchase with the competition.
Nothing short of impeccable service is expected from Australian and New Zealand online retailers and third-party logistics (3PL) providers. But for many, the fulfilment process is often complex, messy, error-prone and time consuming.
Managing a growing number of orders across multiple sales channels is one challenge; then there is also the need to constantly maintain ideal stock levels. Only adding to these challenges are the many manual processes that the average ecommerce business relies on – processes that only become less time and cost-efficient, and more error prone, as orders increase.
These difficulties are why more and more online retailers and 3PLs are turning to cloud-based order management systems (OMS) to automate manual processes, improve order accuracy and gain every operational advantage, no matter how small, to outperform the competition.
Here, we explore the most common order fulfilment challenges Australian and New Zealand ecommerce businesses face and how they can be easily solved by an OMS.
- Topic:
- ERP
Step into a fulfilment warehouse today and you are likely to see an array of robots performing tasks that would otherwise drain the valuable time and effort of workers.
From autonomous vehicles that roll around the warehouse floor transporting items, to robots that pick and pack items with impressive speed, warehouse automation technology is advancing fast.
However, robots in warehouses, distribution centres and factories are nothing new, with those used today the product of over seventy years of evolution.
Vehicles that followed wires embedded in the factory floor first emerged in the 1950s. A decade later, bulky storage and retrieval systems were automating item retrieval in warehouses. By the 1980s, hydraulic robotic arms were picking and assembling items with impressive dexterity.
Now, companies like Amazon have over 750,000 robots working alongside staff. The fulfilment giant will soon even debut a bipedal humanoid robot ‘Digit’ that can walk across the warehouse floor picking and packing items just like a human.
So besides those of the humanoid variety, what other forms of robotic automation are fulfilment companies using in their supply chain today? Read on to learn all about the increasingly advanced robots changing the way fulfilment warehouses operate.
- Topic:
- ERP
Warehouses worldwide are reaping the benefits of the quantum leap in technology we have seen in the last few years. So, what warehouse trends can we expect to take off in 2024 and beyond?
From exoskeletons that help workers with heavy lifting to autonomous robots and predictive AI, we share the fast-growing warehouse management trends in 2024 that make operations more efficient, safer, and greener.
- Topic:
- ERP
As we hit the triple-whammy of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas gift-giving season from November through January, e-commerce businesses, 3PL and warehouses alike can use this handy checklist on navigating peak season order fulfilment and keeping your ducks in a row.
- Topic:
- ERP
The high expectations of today’s online customers mean it has never been more important to minimise manual fulfilment errors.
Next day or same day deliveries are not only desired, but expected. For warehouses, third-party logistics (3PL) providers and online retailers, even a single instance of failing to deliver on time, or getting order items wrong, can lead to lost customers and reputational damage.
A survey of online retailers by Stitch Labs reveals that nearly two thirds (66 per cent) of inventory or fulfilment issues are the result of human error from manual processes. The study also reveals that almost half (45 per cent) of online retailers believe that customers ordering an out-of-stock item is the biggest reason why they never come back.
- Topic:
- ERP
