This past couple months, I have been working with a children’s apparel client on growing their business. Together, we looked at the number of on-line and retail competitors and use of pay per click ads. Competition like most product categories is intense and there are often many more on-line competitors than brick & mortar because of the lower start up investment for on-line business compared to a group of retail stores.

Many fulfillment centers use a forward pick slot concept separate from bulk stock to store product and reduce the travel (walk) time in the picking process. WMS software has greatly improved replenishment processing but for many businesses with older systems that are more dependent on management.

As we perform operational assessments in distribution centers, we have found in the past 33 years that our first impression of the housekeeping and visual appearance is often a key indicator of how well a center is managed.

Vince Lombardi, Green Bay Packers' legendary coach, excelled at winning football games because his teams mastered and executed the fundamentals of blocking, tackling and passing and leading to the win.

As we evaluate multichannel warehouse operations, we are commonly asked one
question “when is a warehouse at capacity?”

When it comes to applying voice technology, and in particular voice picking, there are many benefits that a warehouse will certainly realize. Typically, companies experience additional picked units per hour; increased work pace in voice picking; picking and data entry accuracy; on-line data entry and data prep reduction; etc.

While barcodes have been in use for a long time in shipping and manifesting systems, many warehouses still don’t fully use this technology, although adoption has been increasing over the past few years. That’s a shame, because they are the base technology which most other automation and material handling systems require; they will help you reduce costs and increase control of your operation.

When deciding on a new ERP system choosing a Value-Added Reseller (VAR) as an installation partner is as important as selecting the software itself. In addition to installation services, VARs are industry specialists that often develop industry-specific programming and assist in adapting key functions of the ERP to your business. They also work with the software manufacturer to add functionality to future releases, eliminating the need for customizations.

Installing automation and conveyance systems in your fulfillment and distribution center is a major capital expense and long lead time. It requires considerable expertise, time to plan, and implement these systems properly.

If you’ve been around long enough, you recognize that there hasn’t been enough experienced management in retail, catalog and now e-commerce operations for decades. With the Internet growth over the last 15 years, management turnover and the lack of highly qualified managers is apparent and may be holding your company back.