Page 10 - Logistics News - November December 2022

OP I N I ON

Save jobs by refreshing the WMS
Sa v e job s b y r e fr eshing the WMS

in your e-commerce business
in y our e-c ommer ce business

By Tennille Bell, General Manager: Sales
at Programmed Process Outsourcing (PPO)

Change is never easy, but it is the only real way to achieve efficiency,
particularly in warehousing. What happens when e-commerce
businesses outgrow their warehouse management system (WMS)?

eople and processes can no longer cope there are many South African e-commerce companies
with the influx of orders, which leads to that will not be able to unlock their benefits if they
Pinefficiencies in space usage and product continue to use manual processes (such as Excel
cataloguing, which causes delays in deliveries spreadsheets) to record inventory movement. Even
and unhappy customers. This is an e-commerce worse than manual processes is no WMS at all, and
nightmare. So, what is the solution to this problem? the perils of an e-commerce company not moving
The answer is regularly assessing warehouse to an automated system are numerous. There will
management systems and processes to ensure they be problems with order accuracy, increased storage
can keep up with business demands as well as handing and processing costs, along with numerous costly
over such an enormous operational burden to a customer service failures.
specialist business process outsourcing (BPO) partner.
Automation is critical
Organised chaos: it works Achieving warehousing efficiency demands a quality
What does an organised e-commerce warehouse inventory management system powered by automated
look like? It’s not rows and rows of meticulously software and executed by the right specialist BPO
managed shelves with similar items grouped together partner. Such a provider will step in, conduct an in-
by price or in alphabetical order. This would actually depth needs analysis, identify gaps in performance
be a highly inefficient means of utilising storage and provide solutions that assist e-commerce sellers
space. Rather, by using an automated inventory in streamlining their operations. By implementing an
management system that runs on barcodes and efficient WMS and streamlining processes for their
barcode scanners, one of the world’s largest retailers clients, BPO providers help e-commerce sellers by
operates its warehouses with a system called ‘chaotic revamping and automating their existing (or non-
storage’. existent) WMS. In outsourcing the warehousing
management function to the specialists, e-commerce
This is a dynamic form of warehousing in which companies see a return in these main areas: inventory
products are stored wherever there is space. Not only management, storage space optimisation and labour
does this mean that space is used as efficiently as maximisation, which results in satisfied customers
L O GI S T I CS NEWS Quicker processing means orders are dispatched End-to-end efficiency optimisation
possible, but it also leads to faster processing times.
and reduced returns and costs.

faster, which translates to satisfied customers.

Relying on exhaustive data analysis gathered from
Manual processes: the enemy of efficiency
time and motion studies during the needs assessment
As counterintuitive as chaotic storage might sound,

8 NO V E MB E R/D E C E MB E R 2022 phase, the chosen BPO provider will facilitate
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