Excel spreadsheets or even handwritten lists were yesterday's news. In order to meet the requirements of resilient and flexible logistics, there is no way around digitizing the warehouse. Digital warehouse management combines advantages and added value for all stakeholders - for the warehouse operator as well as for transport companies and their customers.
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Digital warehouse management is associated with the intention of centrally controlling and managing inventories and goods movements. The digital warehouse system accesses all data in real time and thus creates a previously unattained level of transparency for all parties involved. With forward-looking warehouse software, all players come together on one platform, can optimize processes, and map the associated documentation in a purely digital and paperless manner. This optimizes the entire warehouse process as well as the material flow.
To this day, there are said to be Sites where the knowledge of all the details of control and planning are stored solely in the head of the logistics manager. In addition, in many places the tangled mass of paper seems to be unavoidable, with all those involved literally having to fight their way through it. What is supposed to ensure transparency and secure processes often has the opposite effect in practice: Picking errors in order picking, for example, are noticed too late with an analog control system, and efficient planning of delivery and pickup is no longer feasible today without digital tools such as warehouse management software.
In addition, there are ever-increasing requirements for fast warehouse logistics processes. The rapid growth of online trade and omnichannel strategies in the distribution of many companies are just as much a part of this as ever tighter time slot, cost pressure and limited personnel capacities as a result of the shortage of skilled workers.
It is therefore high time for logistics companies to embrace the trend toward digitization and take advantage of the associated potential. In the digital Sites of tomorrow, transparency is not a coincidence, but the permanent state: All internal and external players have an optimized level of information at their disposal at all times and are guided in a smart way through all processes in the fully automated, digital warehouse.
The electronic warehouse management system is where all the threads come together. This includes the control of deliveries, the recording of incoming goods at Sites , and the allocation and optimization of storage locations, as well as the monitoring of the entire picking and shipping process - right through to the subsequent procurement of the delivered goods. Warehouse Logistics 4.0 - or Warehousing 4.0 - digitally combines the entire supply chain in warehouse management.
Even if paper is still involved in many warehouse processes today, this will develop further in rapid succession, from manual booking of picking orders and goods movements, for example, to digital control of the entire warehouse. This increases processing speed, reduces sources of error, and improves transparency, for example, with regard to current goods inventories.
These effects in turn have a direct positive impact on intralogistics as a whole. Equally, however, external transport companies are also involved more efficiently. One example of this: The fact that pickup appointments can be coordinated more precisely in the digital Sites drastically reduces waiting times and the resources wasted as a result.
In a nutshell, there are ten key benefits associated with digital warehouse management:
All parties involved benefit from effective and digital delivery coordination at Sites . TradeLink's experience shows that costs can be reduced by up to 30 percent. Waiting times for arriving trucks are reduced by up to 95 percent - with 100 percent transparency across all processes at the same time.
Transparency is worth hard cash in warehousing and brings with it extensive advantages in terms of business management. After all, excess stocks of individual goods unnecessarily tie up a lot of working capital, while shortages of other products jeopardize potential sales and customer satisfaction.
However, optimized procurement is not the only positive effect of electronic warehouse management. Not only warehouse operators benefit from the increase in transparency, but also transport companies. On the basis of reliable information and good plannability, they can reduce their empty runs, optimize route planning and significantly reduce annoying, hour-long waiting times for drivers in front of the depot.
With ever tighter time windows in logistics and ever more stringent requirements, the need for better networking across the individual process steps is growing. Warehouse control with printed paper lists? That's unthinkable in the future. Instead, the path to smart, collaborative logistics is being opened up by software systems that bring together all participants on an easy-to-use platform in the digital Sites . Digitization at Sites 4.0 helps to make better use of existing potential and to make better decisions based on high-quality information in real time.
To get started with digital warehouse management, it is a good idea to record the current status quo of processes and interfaces and, in the next step, to define ideal processes. This approach allows the positive effects of digitization to be used in the best possible way and sustainable benefits to be achieved. One thing is certain: to meet the high demands of e-commerce, more efficient processes and a high level of transparency are required.
With TradeLink as an intuitively usable software for delivery coordination and logistics planning, Sites also arrives in the digital age. Inventories are permanently documented without gaps, and incoming and outgoing goods can be precisely traced. At the same time, the key figures provided by the software are used to scrutinize processes and initiate continuous logistics optimization.
There are numerous advantages associated with digital warehouse management: You can increase the productivity of your logistics immediately and sustainably, gain more transparency, improve collaboration with all stakeholders and thus enter into proactive logistics. Find out how TradeLink can support you in digitizing the warehouse in a no-obligation initial consultation.
Can companies still afford to wait before digitizing the warehouse? The answer is obvious: it's high time to get to grips with digital warehouse systems and say goodbye to mountains of paper in administration. Those who keep delaying this topic risk successively losing efficiency and competitiveness. Small and medium-sized companies are also faced with the challenge of digitizing all warehouse processes in the coming years.
Today's software systems make it possible to make the transition smoothly, easily and quickly - for collaborative, predictive and intelligent warehouse logistics 4.0.
