Preparing Your Supply Chain for EWM
Warehouse Management (WM) is essential in the best of times to boost efficiency, integrate a myriad of warehouse functions to improve service levels and reduce operating costs. But when fluctuations and crises of supply and demand enter into the picture, the need to improve supply chain agility and keep customer promises takes on a whole new urgent meaning.
WM has tremendous hidden potential to automate and streamline processes if utilized correctly and the possibilities only multiply when moving to Extended Warehouse Management (EWM). The time is now to carve the path forward, know what functionalities are moving, understand what new capabilities are coming down the pipeline, and start preparing. Through prompt action and realignment, you will be positioning your organization’s warehouse to transform and sustain enduring supply chain improvements.
In a nutshell, EWM allows you to assign resources or users to specific tasks and orders and integrate every process from end-to-end. With advanced warehouse functionalities that are ideal for medium to large warehouses with medium to high complexity processes, EWM adds more refinements and layers. The result is an astounding capability for multiple industries to handle large volumes of transactions with the faster times required, particularly in consumer product industries.
At a time when customers expect goods faster than ever before, period of disruption can become an obstacle to fulfilling world-class Available to Promise (ATP) service levels. The disruption to warehouse efficiency can come from many sources: demand volatility caused by a “black swan” event or a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake. Or it could flow from a new product introduction a new iPhone model or Fitbits, for example or a particularly successful marketing campaign that causes demand to surge above supply. Unexpected fluctuation, when the supply chain is not meticulously automated and managed, has the power to cripple warehouse material flow, both inbound and outbound.
Make a commitment to beginning the housekeeping and resetting now. By doing so, you position your WM to pay future dividends. As you change and reconfigure the system, keep the end goal in mind: to migrate to EWM with its emphasis on logistics efficiencies, services and costs.
