Wholesale & Distribution 3PL Warehousing: Optimising Stock Visibility, Date Checking, Backorder Management & More

Wholesale & Distribution 3PL Warehouse businesses typically operate on tight margins – stock integrity and on-time deliveries are critical to their success and directly impact bottom line revenue. They can lose sales by being fined for late or missed deliveries. Often there is a high volume of returned stock that needs to be tightly managed. Short picks are most often not reported – and mis picks are almost never reported. Warehouse operators are often frustrated by a lack of systems functionality and poor technology making them inefficient. All these issues directly affect profitability.

ERP & WMS Warehouse Management Software – Seamless Integration

Distributors will have an ERP system managing their purchasing and sales order functions. In many cases, the included WMS module is mistakenly deployed to address the many warehousing issues. Typically, these modules are not fit-for-purpose as they lack functionality and are inflexible.

And often, staff managing these ERP-WMS systems tend to be financially focused with little, if any, operational warehousing expertise. Therefore, how well the Warehouse Management Software interfaces with new and existing legacy ERP systems is business critical.

Business Critical Issues Concerning Wholesale & Distribution Business Management:

Are our channels management and processes customer and partner responsive? Agility and speed mean success for distributors. Poor integration with legacy and new systems, operators relying on too many manual processes and having to re-key information multiple times – due to system incompatibilities are also a major cause of delays and errors. Simply put, distributors with fully integrated systems are ahead of their competition.
Do we have full visibility to manage inventory and costs efficiently? Distributors need real-time information on their inventories to drive responsive sales operations and to minimise inventory costs. And, they need to identify redundant and slow-moving stock. Without real-time visibility distributors are unable to measure and improve operational performance.
Is my business continually aligned to market demand? It may seem obvious, but success requires that all resources and operations are in step with the target market. Relying on sales forecasts alone is unlikely to maintain and drive revenues in an agile business – a continuous and comprehensive demand snapshot is needed enabling managers and Supply Chain partners to make strategic decisions – sometimes on-the-fly.
How good is our customer service – and how do we know? Your customers demand real-time responses, accurate data and the highest levels of quality control and you need to keep them happy to ensure additional and repeat business. News of poor customer service and experience gets out fast – and is often never correctable – so its best to get it right the first time to ensure you keep ahead of the competition.

An Aberdeen Group Annual Survey asked 644,000 wholesale
distribution operators what their top five business drivers were:

In-DEX WMS: Functionally Rich Warehouse Management Software

In-DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software
is unique in its ability to address all of the aforementoned issues and more. We designed In-DEX WMS to be robust and flexible, seamlessly interfacing with ERP applications including SAPR3, Oracle, Microsoft AX, Microsoft NAV, SAP Business One.

In-DEX WMS ensures comprehensive compliance across all regulations. Its built-incomprehensive set of rules, compatibility tables, and system checks and catch points ensure, for example, that flammable materials are kept separate from oxidizing agents and that correct ADR (Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road) documentation is produced and shipped with the carrier’s outgoing loads.

In-DEX WMS also electronically stores delivery documentation and, if necessary, accompanying documentation such as authorisations, approvals, notifications, certificates and more. Mandatory instructions can be used throughout the process to ensure the operator confirms compliance at all stages.

Functionality Available to Wholesale & Distribution 3PL Warehousing Operations: In-DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software

Full Real Time Stock Traceability, Visibility & Control
Live Interfacing to ERP Systems (e.g.: MS Dynamics, SAP, Oracle+)
File Interfacing to Legacy ERP & EPOS Systems
Comprehensive Purchase Order Matching – Backorder Management
Minimum Best Before Goods-in Date Checking – Prevents Receipting of Short
Shelf Life & Date Sensitive Stock
Cubiscan Scanner Interfacing – New Product Set-up
Management of Multi-temperature Products – Ambient, Chill, Frozen
Dynamic Field Capture Based on Product Records
Sales Orders Automatically Received
Auto-selection of Stock to Pre-defined Picking/Rotational Rules
Allocation of Available Stock Across Stores
Confirm Stock Picked & Shipped Time & Details Including Loading
Interfaces to Routing & Transport Systems
Reserved Stock Management
Interfaces to Rep and Field Sales Systems
Management of Third Party Operations
Product Configuration Management

Our customers rely on our robust, modular and patented In-DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software to run efficient and revenue enhancing operations. They have direct access to a hands-on operational and technology expert pool spanning over 25 years’ operating across the Distribution Warehousing business sector.

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