A good sign of growth for any startup is the need for warehouse space. About 69% of people shop online, and that number will continue to grow.
How do you ensure that your warehouse is operating at the highest level and keeping up with the rest of the supply chain? By investing in warehouse management systems. The challenge then becomes integrating these systems into your business.
Want to learn more about warehouse management systems? Read on to learn what they are and how you can implement them in your warehouse.
Keep reading to find out.
What Are Warehouse Management Systems?
Warehouse management systems are software solutions that give you data and control over your warehouse operations. They let you track your incoming shipment from vendors with barcode scanning.
With that barcode, you’ll know when a shipment arrived, how many products were in the shipment, and where the products are in your warehouse.
You can then track when and how orders are fulfilled. A warehouse management system can see how quickly orders are fulfilled by your warehouse and when they are received by your customers.
What Can a Warehouse Management System Do for Your Business?
You might think of yourself as a blogger and you don’t have much of a need for a warehouse management system.
Put on your entrepreneurial hat for a moment. You have a thriving eCommerce site and you’re ready to move your inventory from your garage to a warehouse.
Warehouse management systems will help you in a number of ways. The first is that they reduce costs. Your operations and order fulfillment are seamless.
You also reduce errors in your orders. You don’t want to create an unhappy customer because you shipped the wrong product.
There’s also data that you can use to make your operations much more efficient. You may find that one reason why your order fulfillment is slow is because of storage issues. Things have to be moved around to get to some products.
You respond by installing a pallet rack to make your warehouse more organized and efficient.
Implementation of Warehouse Management Systems
When you’re ready to use warehouse management systems, you want to make sure you’re your investment fits your needs.
Start by analyzing your needs and understand where the opportunities to track and improve your processes are.
You’ll also need to develop policies and expectations for your staff. They may need to meet certain benchmarks such as order fulfillment times.
Be sure to create a long timeline to implement your warehouse management system. That will give you time to test the systems and train your employees before you completely switch to a new system.
Warehouse Management Systems for a Smarter Business
Your startup largely depends on your ability to meet customer expectations. You have to rely on your warehouse operations to be able to track your inventory and fulfill orders at the speed of light.
When you implement warehouse management systems, you’re able to track and manage your operations. You know when shipments arrive from your vendor when they leave, and when they are delivered to your customers.
In the end, you deliver better service and you save money.
Are you ready for more tips for entrepreneurs? Head over to our Personal Growth section for more great content.
