How does a warehouse management system work?

We live and breathe warehouse management optimization through systems. After all, we started CartonCloud when no one was offering such reliability with a clean interface.

We’ve helped many clients who have now come on board, to not only understand how a warehouse management system works, but to roll out a custom solution. For those curious, we hope this blog post addresses this question without the technical jargon.

A warehouse management system works by connecting users directly to inventory. It can work in small warehouses, big warehouses or even across multiple warehouses. There are some good benefits including faster pick rates, more optimized route planning and better inventory, loading dock and pallet space allocation. We are unique in that we offer transport management that helps delivery drivers to go fully digital.

With that aside, it’s time to consider why they work so well.

You can track inventory

Whether it’s inventory in a warehouse, or inventory in delivery vehicles, it’s simply much easier to track. Many of our clients use scanners in the field for this purpose.

Receiving teams can mark inventory locations assigned to unique stock-keeping units and this updates across the warehouse network within seconds. This reduces the frustration of missing cartons and pallets, as all personnel know exactly where they are. The scanner location can also be tracked, in the off-chance a worker has allocated inventory in completely the wrong location.

It can also track freight in delivery trucks and vans in real-time. What many CartonCloud clients love is the electronic Proof of Delivery with signature, which uploads directly to your own secure system within seconds, ready for the administration team to process back at base.

Lastly, given personnel are now tracked, it’s much harder to steal freight. Freight theft isn’t so common in Australia, but it certainly happens! In fact, we lost thousands from a dodgy driver that we once employed. With CartonCloud, we would’ve detected him (and he would’ve been gone) within moments.

You can speed up operations

Paper-based systems are what some still cling on to, whilst many have transitioned over to a software solution. There’s many benefits, but a KPI that many in warehousing look at is productivity.

Warehouse personnel get a clearer understanding of picking routes, BIN locations and dispatch times. You can also assign tasks to warehouse personnel on the fly, with no verbal interaction necessary.

Delivery drivers can create their own route plan using the route map we mentioned previously, or fleet allocators can assign a route plan on their behalf. Either way, you can reduce backtracking, peak-hour bottlenecks and waiting times through optimizing your delivery routes.

It can also make results available to other personnel, so it creates a workplace benchmark. Personnel then can see required performance standards based on real data.

Lastly, you can plug into other systems. Warehouse management systems work well by themselves, but really shine when you can plug them directly into other popular software packages. Xero and MYOB are two popular packages that plug directly into CartonCloud, and accountants will love this!

Lastly, you can eliminate paperwork

Everything is electronic, reducing the mess of paperwork in the administration office. One of the biggest frustrations we had was truck drivers losing paperwork. A warehouse management system works electronically and can eliminate this frustration and potential expenses.

Not only is there no paperwork, the data updates in real time. Administration teams can start reconciliation immediately, without having to wait for drivers to return to base.

So while the paperwork isn’t there, the data IS there. All personnel can not only continue their roles, but do it much easier. Call us today to see if CartonCloud and our warehousing management system can fit within your operations.