Supply Chain Visibility Top Concern for Warehouse Management

May 24th 2016 15:00:48 PM

Supply chain visibility is one of the top concerns for manufacturers and distributors. The more insights businesses have about their supply chain, the better decisions they can make and the more successful the business will be. Best-in-class organizations are more likely to have real-time visibility into data and processes that improve their warehouse management.

Insights into the Importance of Supply Chain Visibility

Greater visibility gives managers better insight into the organization enabling them to react quickly to operational and market changes. With visibility across departments and divisions, you can better predict demand, ship orders, interact with customers and invest in the business with confidence.

Nothing is more frustrating to customers than to hear “I don’t know” when they call and ask where their orders are in the shipping process. Businesses depend on reliable shipments to keep their doors open. Even so, companies are experiencing challenges in maintaining reliable shipments.

Managers need to know what is happening with inventory in order to best respond. Warehouse automation tools make this easy by providing the real-time information needed to determine optimal restocking schedules as well as automated ordering and re-ordering. Through integration with enterprise software such as Sage 100, the tools communicate across departments and even outside of the organization using actionable intelligence. This enables informed decisions about recommended stock levels, replenishment schedules, automated orders, and exception alerts.

Using these warehouse management automation tools and their ERP, managers can use the data to achieve inventory optimization. They can make decisions to help balance the trade-offs between the costs of a stock-out versus the costs of overstocking. Inventory management tools can adjust recommended stocking levels that are dependent upon variable risk tolerance. They help strike the balance between pushing risk tolerance in the direction of avoiding stock-outs and having more inventory ready versus pushing management to stock as little inventory as possible to avoid storage and waste costs. The ability of an inventory optimization tool to adjust forecasts based on the “what-ifs” is a huge plus to management.

Inventory management is all about making better decisions that result in better balance. This depends on the shifting goals that are influenced by the reality of the events going on in the warehouse. Tools that can improve balance provide a large and ongoing return on investment. The goal is to reduce inventory levels resulting in significant savings. Because right-sizing is a complex challenge, cost control and customer satisfaction have become the focus. These are driving the adoption of more sophisticated systems of inventory management. By utilizing warehouse automation and inventory management tools that provide for dynamic optimization of inventories to maximize customer service and market share while decreasing inventory investment and lowering costs, inventory managers can significantly impact overall competitiveness and profitability.

Good Supply Chain Management Engenders Confidence

It’s really no surprise that investments into fulfillment accuracy generate an improvement in business. When customers get what they paid for on time and in good condition, they are satisfied with their order. When service is even better than they expected thanks to robust enterprise software that includes supply chain management, they feel confident in their business decisions. Good service engenders confidence in a vendor, which in turn can lead to repeat business.

It’s an old saying that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers, but ask any business person and they’ll say that it’s true. The less you need to spend on customer acquisition, the better. With good supply chain management and ERP solutions in place, you may find that customers order for the quality of your goods but return for the excellent service.

Sage 100 Warehouse Automation Tools from Scanco

Scanco offers Sage 100 warehouse automation tools that seamlessly integrate with Sage 100 giving you inventory visibility that will improve your business. If you are ready to take control of your warehouse, contact us today.