Warehouses are lively spaces with many processes happening simultaneously. One station can be busy picking orders while others prepare shipments for delivery. To keep everything working smoothly, operation managers should maintain efficiency at every turn.
Modern warehouses should leverage technology and maximize its benefits to improve their workflow. With the market becoming more competitive every year, modern warehouses should implement innovative strategies and digitization to stay ahead of the curve.
Since operations managers often have their hands full with multiple tasks, we’ve compiled a list of 5 key features every modern warehouse needs.
5 Key Features For Every Modern Warehouse
The business landscape is constantly changing, with more competition than ever before. To stay ahead of the curve, warehouses must keep up with the changing times and modernize their operation. If you’re looking to upgrade your warehouse, here are some essential features to consider.
1. Inventory Management Software
A modern warehouse needs modern technology. Investing in WMS software is one of the best ways to digitize your warehouse. This highly innovative tool is fundamental for any warehouse looking to streamline its supply chain.
With inventory management software, you can access key insights that make forecasting customer demand easy. This tool can also smooth out the order processing and returns system. For larger operations, many sophisticated WMSs handle multi-warehouse inventory and shipping. If you’re looking to get started with one, consider Canary7.
Canary7 offers a fully responsive and robust warehouse management system that helps you take your business to the next level. Our WMS provides accurate and comprehensive inventory data so you can make the right decisions for your stock.
Despite these innovative features, we’ve designed our software to be as user-friendly and intuitive as possible, making it the ideal solution for any growing business.
2. Stock Control System
Nowadays, warehouses should do more than just maintain inventory. Instead, they should focus on stock control. Modern warehouses use this method to ensure they make the best use of their storage space.
The main purpose behind stock control is to save you time and money while keeping your customers happy. Excess inventory might seem like a minor issue, but extra warehousing costs can slowly creep up and cause a lot of damage.
Some companies overstock items in case of high demand, but this can be wasteful and eat a large chunk of your profits. On the other hand, you might run out of stock and risk losing customers.
To avoid such hiccups, stock control management can help you forecast demand so you’ll have the right amount of product on hand.
You will also build customer loyalty and improve client relationships as you’ll always have stock when needed. Some businesses might prefer to manage inventory manually, but this can be time-consuming and pose the risk of human error. Instead, invest in high-quality stock control software to gain key insights into your inventory without errors.
3. Seamless Order Fulfilment
Modern businesses often use multichannel integrations and selling that outdated warehouses would need help keeping up with.
Without the proper software and infrastructure to handle such fulfilment, you could create bottlenecks in your supply. In addition, you’ll have higher lead times, leading to poor customer satisfaction.
The modern warehouse should automate its order processing to keep up with multi-selling modes. A robust WMS can be a great help here as it will be a central hub for all your order fulfilment needs. Canary7 WMS has an easy-to-use interface that allows integrations with some of the most popular eCommerce stores and shipping options.
4. Real-Time Inventory Tracking
Real-time tracking is one of the most innovative and helpful tools modern warehouses can use. With real-time tracking, you’ll stay updated on your stock levels, so you never have to deal with overstocking or understocking.
In real-time inventory management, your system records every transaction instantly instead of updating the data regularly. This way, you’ll have accurate information and know what steps to take for a more efficient supply chain.
Real-time inventory data also reacts quickly to any disruptions or sudden changes that could target your workflow.
Real-time inventory management instantly records inventory purchases and sales through the software. This feature allows your business to understand and track stock movement in real-time. With this information on hand, business owners can take proactive steps to maintain their supply chain and stop problems from popping up.
5. Better Transaction Management
Apart from order-placing systems, modern warehouses must also optimize the transaction process. Gone are the days of in-person transactions, as many people choose to make payments online.
Offer clients a robust transaction system that links directly to your inventory. With this software, you can create inventory receipts that will generate a picking list for warehouse workers without any manual errors.
Current online transaction software should provide one-step, two-step or three-step processes for a convenient experience. Additionally, it includes support for flexible packing options. Here, you can let clients choose their preferred packing method and even offer green materials if necessary.
Why Is Warehouse Management Important?
Nowadays, warehouse management is more crucial than ever. Modern warehouses often deal with a varied amount of stock, so it’s crucial to implement a strategy that helps you optimize your workflow.
In a warehouse management strategy, you should improve picking, packing, storage, and shipping. Additionally, your plan would boost labour management and the general day-to-day activities in the warehouse.
A warehouse management strategy is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Instead, consider your warehouse’s unique challenges and pain points and see how to improve them.
Current Trends In Warehouse Management
Are you looking for more ways to modernize your warehouse? Here are some key industry trends to watch.
Green Warehousing
After the pandemic, sustainability has become a major concern for many customers. To meet these customer concerns, warehouses must use green techniques to maintain sustainability.
The main goal of green logistics is to conserve resources, reduce gas emissions, and apply waste management policies in warehouses. All these policies should be implemented alongside quality customer care to maintain their satisfaction.
With the number of packing materials used, the logistics industry produces a lot of waste. Green warehouses should implement strategies to reduce waste and maintain a cleaner, more sustainable operation.
Robotic Automation in Warehouses
Warehouse automation is an excellent way to make the overall operation more efficient and
reduce manual labour. This method also eliminates human errors and delays in the supply chain.
Automation allows your in-house team to find ways to optimize the workflow with technology.
Another great benefit of automation is that it reduces health and safety risks for workers. Manual moving and lifting of heavy goods can pose a significant hazard and problem for many warehouse operation managers.
To eliminate this risk and maintain efficiency, modern warehouses use a semi-automated lifting method, allowing operators to move items of various weights and sizes. With an automated picking process, there’s also little chance of heavy objects being damaged during transport.
Digitization and Visualized Data
Warehouses deal with large amounts of data, so it makes sense that modern warehouse tools are looking to digitize this area.
Current WMS software provides razor-sharp accuracy with visual aids to make the data easier to understand, manage, and process. Such digitization also offers in-depth analytics that take large amounts of data and turn it into digestible information.
You’ll also have access to graphs, charts, and other helpful graphics that will make it easier to visualize past data and plans for the future.
3 Modern Warehouse Challenges and Their Solutions
So, you’ve implemented a lot of changes to modernize your warehouse, but this might open up a new set of problems. Don’t worry; we’ve compiled a list of common warehouse challenges and how to solve them. Let’s take a look.
1. Inefficient Space Management
A large storage space is great for keeping as many products as possible, but this doesn’t mean the space is being utilized correctly. Optimized space management is a great way to ensure all stock gets stored appropriately.
For example, you might have an inefficient layout because you stack items only vertically. Instead, a combination of vertical and horizontal storage might improve space utilization.
Inefficient space management also increases pick and pack times, directly impacting profitability and customer experience. Carefully plan each section of the warehouse to ensure the best use of the space.
2. Inaccurate Inventory Management
Inventory management is a key problem many warehouses face. With one small misstep, you can cause major disruptions to the supply chain.
Inaccurate stock data could lead to picking mishaps, slow lead times, and delayed shipping. Such challenges will affect your customer experience. WMS software is an excellent solution to these problems.
WMS records accurate information and provides clear details on all your inventory. However, some WMS suffer from lagging or don’t work well with fluctuating inventory. You won’t find these problems with Canary7 WMS.
Our WMS offers a fully responsive and robust interface that handles all warehousing needs. Canary7 WMS is also flexible and scalable in its design to fit any business’s requirements.
3. Poor Labour Management
Labour costs take up a significant portion of your warehouse budget. This is why you need to pay close attention to how you manage your team members.
Workers are crucial to a warehouse’s day-to-day operations, and with the right management techniques, you can improve the productivity of your workflow.
If you’re adding new machinery and introducing modern software, always provide extensive training to your workforce. This will ensure worker safety and that the new technology is used to its best ability.
Additionally, some WMS software is also designed to help with labour management. With this tool, you can assign appropriate tasks to your workers based on their skill level. Also, warehouse workers can use the WMS to stay on track of their tasks.
Modernize Your Warehouse With Canary7 WMS
Canary7 WMS understands the needs of a modern warehouse, which is why our software is designed to accommodate all your needs. With a user-friendly and robust interface, partnering your warehouse with our WMS is quick and easy.
Canary7’s innovative software gives you a 360° view of your inventory, allowing you to make proactive decisions while removing human error. Get started with Canary7 today to optimize your warehouse.
Colleen Ballantine
Author
UPDATED ON: 7th May 2024
Colleen is a marketing specialist at Canary7, writing in-depth blog content on warehouse management, inventory control, and logistics. With extensive industry experience, Colleen focuses on delivering informative and insightful posts
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