NewVision Warehouse Management

NewVision Warehouse Management includes a comprehensive suite of functionality to assist you in improving the overall efficiency of your warehouse operations.

This functionality is broken down into the following four components:

• Directed inventory put-away
• Directed inventory picking
• Packing and containerization
• Warehouse physical inventory

As inventory is received, determining the correct location for placement is difficult in many large warehouses. As distributors grow and inventories become larger, this process becomes increasingly complicated and difficult to manage. Often, the result is that inventory is placed into warehouse locations that make it difficult to pick during order fulfillment. In extreme cases, inventory can even become lost.

The directed inventory put-away functionality provides advice to warehouse personnel as to which zones and bins are available for use and which bins should be used. This advice is based upon certain information that warehouse personnel provide about the warehouse facility and the inventory.

Specifically, it is possible for the user to indicate special requirements for certain items. These requirements are considered each time the system offers inventory put-away advice. For example, if certain items can only be placed in large areas of the warehouse, it's possible to indicate during the set up of those items the specific areas that can be used. When the system offers put-away advice for these items, it will only consider those areas of the warehouse that the user has indicated as adequate to handle the inventory. Similarly, if special equipment is needed to move the inventory (such as a forklift), the system will advise warehouse personnel of the requirement.

It is also possible to establish fixed bins for certain items. Many distributors use fixed bins to assure that high-turnover inventory remains easily accessible. The user can specify that certain bins are fixed so that the system will place only the appropriate inventory into a fixed bin.

In large warehouses, it is difficult to determine the most efficient way to select or pick inventory for shipment. In many systems, the only information available is the quantity of an item in each bin location. However, there may be optimum ways in which items are picked. The optimum picking method is relative to the business.

Common picking methods supported in Warehouse Management include...

• Pick by order — or picking all items for an individual order. For example, a warehouse employee is given a specific order to pick. He or she would pick all the items on that order and deliver them to the shipment area before picking for another order. This form of picking is typically used by businesses that have quick order turnaround policies.
• Pick to tote — or picking items for multiple orders in a single pass through the warehouse. For example, a warehouse employee may be given a number of orders for which to pick items. This employee would pick the items for all orders in the sequence in which they are stored in the warehouse. These items would then be delivered to the shipment area for packing and shipping.
• Wave picking — or picking specific items for multiple orders within an item category or warehouse location. For example, a warehouse employee may be given specific items to pick for a number of different orders. Another employee may be given other items to pick for the same orders. These employees would bring these items back to the shipment staging area to be sorted andassembled by order for packing and shipping.

The directed picking functionality fully supports item cross docking as well. As mentioned previously, cross-docking allows warehouse personnel to pick items from the put-away staging area; thus, avoiding unnecessary inventory movement in the warehouse.

Additionally, "pick interleaving" is supported. As its name implies, pick interleaving combines the processes of item put-away with picking. It minimizes efforts by directing items within a given zone to be put-away while other items within that zone are being picked.

For most businesses, shipments are made by placing the ordered items into containers of one form or another. Such containers might include simple boxes, pallets, truck containers, or even shipping modules.

If more than a single unit of an item is placed into such a container, it is necessary that the contents of the container be recorded and tracked for shipment. This information is especially useful when errors occur during shipment or if an advanced shipping notice is being sent to the customer.

The Packing and Containerization functionality will allow a company to specify at the time of packing, exactly what items are placed into a container. When the packing is complete, the system then contains the detailed contents and weight of each container. By determining the weight of the container, personnel in shipping can compare the expected weight with the actual weight to identify potential packing errors.

Thephysical inventory functionality is similar to standard NewVision Physical Inventory except that it utilizes a Warehouse Physical Inventory journal that counts the quantities in bins rather than simply counting quantities at the item level. This functionality can be used to perform a complete physical inventory or to perform cycle counting by breaking down the entire physical inventory count into small manageable tasks. For example, the user might decide to initiate a cycle count based upon...

• Total locations, divided by the number of days to count
• Transaction volume — high turnover items might need counting more often to assure accurate tracking.
• Item categories — for example, high priced items may be counted more often than low priced items.

NewVision Software fully supports the use of hand-held bar coding devices by providing an interface to radio frequency devices. This interface allows the use of hand-held devices for the picking, put-away, and physical inventory functions, components of warehouse management.

Additionally, internal bar codes can be printed. These bar codes can be printed on item labels, bin labels, physical inventory worksheets, and other relevant reports.