Role of chemical manufacturer in warehouse picking optimization

The role of picking optimization in chemical warehouse

Selection is a key process in the warehouse, and without optimization, it can become confusing – especially in the case of a large number of warehouse transactions. Most chemical warehouse management problems occur when selecting items. This problem is usually the result of “accepting” or “shelving” tasks. Although radio frequency and voice control systems are becoming more common, some operations still rely on manual drive systems. A key part of the whole management is to ensure full compliance with your ERP system, even if circumstances arise that make compliance seem unreasonable. Exceptions, such as the provision of approved substitutes or the discovery of incorrect products in a location, must have a record in order to fully and accurately record inventory.

There may be many mistakes in the selection process. This includes looking at the actual available quantity of an item and keeping inventory on a previously confirmed deferred order – Delta displays the available quantity after assigning the material to an existing order. In addition, the picking operation can easily deceive the planner who is checking the inventory. A well functioning warehouse management system should be able to detect the allocated, picked and delivered inventory, so as to avoid overbooking to multiple orders due to excessive quantity. If the inventory count leads to inaccuracy, the inventory error can be eliminated by making sufficient inventory adjustment through mobile devices. Chemical manufacturer prefer aggressive planning to avoid reporting errors in inventory; however, they often try to speed up operations to meet demand and deliver goods “on time and in full.”. In order to meet the dynamic needs of customers, daily planned tasks sometimes violate GMP (good manufacturing practice). Diligent in checking the tracking of inventory records can support more reliability and inventory accuracy.

Recall management

In the case of product recall, chemical manufacturers need to trace each shipment batch and be able to quickly retrieve all customer details of a specific product batch. In order to develop product traceability, chemical plants must run on a system that tracks all process operations, raw material order batches, product related data and supplier customer related data. Transaction details are effectively processed at a fine-grained level to track inventory history from purchase / production to specific shipments. A well-designed supply chain management (SCM) will be able to track inventory aging and be able to go deep into details. All the basic data enable the system to track products in different processes: manufacturing, delivery, site, products in transit, products in transit and products under quarantine. Traceability must also be used as a tool to identify suppliers of defective materials so that the whole supply chain can operate safely and reliably. If necessary, when the inventory defects of a specific supplier continue to appear in the whole product life cycle, the system will recommend the decision to switch suppliers.

The role of Technology

An ideal information system to run a warehouse in a chemical plant must manage inventory and deal with the visibility of the supply chain to respond quickly to emergencies. The system includes documents dealing with countermeasures, compliance issues, date audits, responsible person reviews, related benefits, and requirements of specific regulators such as OSHA.

Ultimately, ethical business practices are essential for sustainable and constructive growth. An efficient warehouse management system (WMS), a set of intelligent operation strategy, and a system driving user behavior can bring huge profits to chemical manufacturers.

Key takeaway

Warehouse management needs a consistent, fast learning and easy to follow process. This process will help improve the overall performance.

In a short period of time, the major industries have experienced barcode, radio frequency identification (rdfi), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other technological changes. The application of all these technologies helps to improve authenticity in real time, speed up general warehouse operations, and speed up transportation with other supply chain partners.

All growth oriented chemical companies in the market use a common platform to manage their end-to-end business. Comprehensive planning and good supplier retailer relationship can help avoid unpredictability and other inventory risks involved. Its goal is to create supply chain surplus and total value-added opportunities for end customers, and ultimately contribute to its success.