Implementation of WMS. WMS warehouse management systems for retail stores Stages of implementing a wms system in a warehouse

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WMS systems what is it

A WMS system (Warehouse Management System) is software designed for the day-to-day management of processes in a warehouse. The functionality of the WMS warehouse management system allows users to centrally, under the control of the warehouse WMS, through workstations and radio terminals, perform warehouse operations.

WMS system (Warehouse Management System) is software designed to automate the management of warehouse processes and the operation of the warehouse complex as a whole.

The WMS functionality allows users to centrally, under software control, using workstations and radio terminals, perform warehouse operations. Operation of a warehouse with an implemented WMS system is simple and efficient, allowing you to minimize losses during fulfillment warehouse operations.

The company (logistics operator) receives real benefits when servicing customers. Accurate information about the location of the goods, the ability to quickly assemble the required goods in the required quantity provides the company with beneficial advantages, expressed in the delivery of orders on time, without delays, which ultimately creates high loyalty of your customers.

WMS system functionality

The WMS warehouse management system Logistics Vision Suite, presented by ANT Technologies, has flexible functionality and has undeniable competitive advantages, expressed in the ability to quickly adapt to current and new warehouse requirements.

Adaptability and breadth of settings allows the owner to gradually create his own logistics system, reflecting individual needs for managing a logistics business. A WMS program is necessary for companies with intensive turnover processes.

Acceptance of goods

Optimizing the storage process

The WMS system allows users to model effective storage schemes for various goods, taking into account their characteristics, for example, such as the weight of the goods or its demand (inventory turnover rate). This allows you to organize the storage process in such a way that more in demand or heavier goods will be located closer to the shipping area, or goods shipped together will be stored next to each other, due to which less time will be required for processing. Taking into account numerous storage factors ensures efficient warehouse operation.

Personnel Management

Centralized management warehouse using a WMS warehouse system reduces the need for a large number of personnel. Optimization of the working stock becomes possible, including by reducing the frequency of product inventory. The WMS program allows you to take inventory of goods without interfering with the daily operation of the warehouse. Reducing labor costs allows you to reduce current (operating) costs for maintaining a warehouse and increase the efficiency of the entire enterprise. Measuring key performance indicators of a warehouse () improves work efficiency, allows you to measure performance indicators, check the implementation and effectiveness of work, create a reporting form, set up a motivation system and wage standards.

Document flow

A WMS system allows you to automate most warehouse processes, eliminating the need for paper document management, which requires significant resources. Provides all users with shared access to the database, providing workers with the necessary information for fast and high-quality work.

Picking and shipment

Warehouse management software ensures high-quality order picking, which means that the picking process will be carried out according to warehouse standards, FIFO, FEFO, FPFO and LIFO methods. A WMS will ensure that a correctly assembled order is delivered to the correct address at the correct time.

Customer service

The WMS system improves the quality of customer service through fast and error-free processing of depositor orders and timely delivery. High quality service increases the competitiveness of the company, allows you to build loyalty of current customers and attract new customers.

Warehouse management and control

For enterprises that need advanced control capabilities, the WMS program offers tracking of goods according to various characteristics: serial numbers, expiration dates, product codes, etc. Issues regarding returns and product quality guarantee conditions are quickly resolved through the ability to track supply channels.

Reporting

Best systems WMS (Warehouse Management Systems), which include Logistics Vision Suite, allow you to use databases as easily as Microsoft SQL, which makes it possible to generate reports even in standard versions of solutions. But WMS systems have the advantage of allowing you to change the way data is presented. Based on the available information, you can generate various reports:

• efficient use of warehouse space
• the need to increase or reduce warehouse space
• performance of each warehouse employee
• optimization of staff numbers
• analysis of financial costs based on data on storage volume and number of operations performed
• and etc.

WMS at the design stage Modern systems warehouse management, which allows you to automate and standardize the business processes of an enterprise, can also become a certain weighing factor in an attempt to change. How to provide for possible changes in the future WMS without additional modifications and within the budget?

In dynamically changing economic conditions, to survive in a competitive environment, many companies have to become flexible, both in decision-making and at the level of business processes. Modern management systems that allow you to automate and standardize an enterprise's business processes can become a certain complicating factor in an attempt to change. How to provide for possible changes in WMS without additional modifications and within budget? A few tips that you should use at the selection stage and design of a WMS.

Popularity of WMS (Warehouse Management System)— warehouse management systems — is growing in Russia every year. The number of solutions offered for warehouse automation is also increasing: there are dozens of systems from various vendors on the market.

up to 5 days to select a solution and calculate an estimate

Order the implementation of a WMS to optimize the operation of your warehouse and make its interactions with other departments of the company transparent. We will complete all project implementation tasks - from finding the ideal solution to supplying licensed software, equipment and wireless networks. We will teach your employees how to use the system. You can:

use various identification technologies in your work: barcoding, voice-picking, Pick-by-light or Put-to-light;

abandon paper media in the warehouse, conduct electronic information exchange within the company and when interacting with counterparties, integrate with various information systems companies and with warehouse equipment;

dynamically change the storage address of the product depending on the purity of circulation of the product (ABC);

change the volume of storage places for goods depending on the type of TE ( transport unit): EUR, FIN, American standard, Eurobox, etc.;

apply various strategies for receiving, placing, replenishing, inventory, selecting, packaging and shipping goods;

use various motivational schemes for employees, send the results to the accounting department and send final calculations to employees with the required detail;

tariff warehouse operations (billing) for automated invoicing for work/services within the company or to depositors;

automate the yard management process;

carry out warehouse operations eliminating the human factor;

() can bring significant benefits to almost every warehouse. The organization of targeted storage of goods, automatic planning of operations, and the introduction of control over the actions of personnel will have a positive impact on the work of both a pharmaceutical warehouse with an area of ​​400 sq.m. and a distribution center of a retail network, the size of several football fields. Of course, in the so-called “large warehouses” the effect of high-quality automation is much more noticeable. Unfortunately, implementation errors are more noticeable in such warehouses.

When starting a conversation about large warehouses, I would like, first of all, to define the concept of a “large warehouse”. In our understanding, a “large warehouse” is not just a warehouse of significant area, from 10,000 sq.m. "Large" also means intensive, with many personnel. Both size, work intensity, and number of employees have a huge impact on the complexity of a warehouse automation project. The larger the area, the faster the pace of work, the more employees are involved in the execution of operations, the more complex and lengthy the automation. That is why when implementation of WMS system (automated system warehouse management) in a large warehouse should be in mandatory take into account a number of specific features of such projects.

All these features can be divided into 3 groups: technical, organizational and technological and personnel.

A look inside the system

The technical parameters of a large warehouse automation project are primarily associated with the system architecture and its performance. An automated warehouse management system (WMS class system), which is selected for automation, must support the high pace of simultaneous work of dozens and sometimes hundreds of warehouse employees of various specializations - storekeepers, drivers of material handling equipment, controllers, managers. Such productivity is achieved through the construction of a special system architecture, where the unit of personnel work is a minimum set of actions - the TASK. For example, the TASK may be to select one item from one warehouse cell - go to the cell, take the product, indicate (confirm) the selected quantity. Working in small steps, TASKS, is what distinguishes WMS from accounting systems, where the unit of work is a document that includes many lines and reflects the full-fledged fact of a business transaction. This arrangement of warehouse management systems ensures high speed and the possibility of conflict-free work for users.

In an intensively working warehouse, a huge amount of information passes per unit of time, and this flow should not contain unnecessary data. Superfluous both for the system as a whole and for a specific moment of its operation. In other words, the system must operate exclusively in real time. For this purpose, the concept is built in a special way software product. An automated warehouse management system, capable of managing a large warehouse, must plan and issue tasks to performers at the moment the corresponding need arises - to place, replenish the selection area, carry out the next stage of floating inventory. WMS should not create and accumulate tasks that “maybe someday...” will be completed. After all, when the warehouse is working intensively, everything changes every minute, so the system’s reactions to the current situation must be born “on the fly.”

Let us explain this approach with a specific example. When picking an order, the warehouseman can move between storage areas of the warehouse. While he is working in one of the zones, work is in full swing in others, which he will move on to later. By the time the storekeeper moves to the next site, the situation with the distribution of goods may change dramatically. Eventually optimal route bypassing the cells in the zone will become completely different from the one that existed at the time the order was assembled. Thus, it is logical to structure the work so that the next portion of selection tasks is generated at the moment the storekeeper enters this zone, and not in advance. Obviously, for this style of warehouse operation, the use of wireless technologies is mandatory. Separately, I would like to draw attention to one more feature regarding the functionality of the WMS system chosen to automate a large warehouse - the ability to use it to prepare a wide range of operational reporting. This point is truly relevant for the warehouse manager, since large areas and a large number of employees do not always allow him to personally monitor the progress of events and respond to emerging deviations - delays in order preparation, idle personnel or equipment. Thus, there is a need for various kinds of reports, graphs, and diagrams. Does the warehouse have time to prepare orders, is all the staff involved in the work and in what mode is it loaded, are there enough resources for the existing work plan for the shift, how much free space is there in the warehouse and will it accommodate the next deliveries - all this information should be provided to the warehouse manager in a convenient form at any given time.

Organizational and technological preparedness of the warehouse

According to AXELOT specialists, the success of the WMS system implementation project largely depends on the degree of organizational and technological readiness of the warehouse for automation. It is no secret that automation of a warehouse where processes are not systematized will give less results than the implementation of a WMS in a warehouse with well-thought-out technology for storing and processing goods. If in a warehouse with an area of ​​2,000 sq.m., where a dozen people work, shortcomings in processes are invisible or can be solved with the help of moderate labor costs, then in a warehouse of 10,000 sq.m. or more, any such “gap” in the business process can become critical and lead to significant loss of time.

An obvious example is the product placement business process. In a small warehouse with an installed WMS system, you can get by with placement according to the decision of the storekeeper, who has a rough idea of ​​the zoning of the warehouse, chooses the storage location himself and uses a data collection terminal to record the cell where the goods were placed. Simple and fast. An automated warehouse management system does not require data about the product, storage locations, or the logic of combining goods in cells - nothing. However, the information entered by the storekeeper about the location of the goods in the warehouse will make the work of the assemblers quick and accurate. As a result, a small warehouse certainly benefits from the implementation of a WMS system, although the implementation of a WMS system did not bring any organizational changes in the operation of the warehouse.

We will see a completely different picture in a warehouse of 10,000 sq.m. and more. Here, “gaps” in operating technology have a negative effect that is several times stronger than in small warehouses. Thus, trying to find a placement location manually takes an unreasonably long time, and violation of storage conditions or the load capacity of the racks by an inexperienced storekeeper can lead to damage to goods. Therefore, for a large warehouse, the implementation of an automated management system must necessarily begin with the functional and technological development of the warehouse’s business processes. In particular, returning to the example with the placement operation - before transferring the planning of this procedure “into the hands” of the WMS system, it is necessary to have a clearly calculated logic of this process - zones, standard sizes, product groups, principles of product proximity, taking into account the wave of order selection, information about weight and volume of goods and containers and much more.

Lack of warehouse zoning and categorization of goods by ABC, product groups, standard sizes, etc. does not make it possible to create unified storage areas for product groups, optimized for useful storage volume (different types of racks, different cell sizes). In turn, the lack of unification of storage locations and/or warehouse containers leads to the need to build more complex placement algorithms, which entails an inevitable decrease in the reliability of the automated warehouse management system. An attempt to transfer decisions about building a business process to WMS in the style of “place everything everywhere, place everything with everything and optimally” is doomed to failure. The development of algorithms and formalization of warehouse business processes should precede the implementation of an automated warehouse management system, and not vice versa.

If we delve deeper into the topic of the relationship between warehouse operating technology and WMS functionality, which is especially pronounced in large warehouses, then we cannot fail to mention such a process as optimizing the mileage of material handling equipment (H&T). The distances of tens of thousands of “squares” that these expensive warehouse resources have to overcome make us think about reducing the number of idle runs. This reduction is achieved both by technological and organizational measures (for example, the allocation of selection zones, staggering replenishment and selection procedures in time), and by the functionality of WMS systems. In particular, it is necessary to think about the possibility of issuing tasks for PTOs based on their location at the end of the previous task (for example, combining the tasks of picking and placing pallets).

When diving into details, we must not forget about an integrated approach. If you focus on optimizing mileage, the sequence of picking a “wave” of orders may run counter to the desired sequence of their shipment, resulting in the warehouse needing a large picking area. On the other hand, a reserve of time is also necessary for preparing the “wave”, since the technical department will carry out several types of work in parallel (selection/placement), and not focus on one operation in order to achieve maximum speed order processing. Thus, to create a balanced solution, it is very important to see the entire process as a whole.

Personnel decides everything

Third in order, but equally important, is the specificity associated with warehouse personnel. In a large warehouse, the quality of training and testing of employees, their knowledge and understanding of the process as a whole and their role in it become especially important. If on small projects you can sometimes even afford training “according to the Brazilian system” - during the work process - then on a large project training should take place before the start of work, using detailed role instructions, in small groups formed according to the specialization of employees, with test runs and subsequent certification. One of the most painful problems during the initial operation of a WMS is the lack of well-developed skills in performing operations and knowledge of how to act in an unusual situation. With a warehouse staff of tens or hundreds of people, the need for training/retraining that arises during the work process significantly slows down the functioning of the warehouse. It is much more effective to “change” some of the personnel who raise doubts about their ability to learn and adapt to changes before putting an automated warehouse management system into operation than to then change personnel in the operating mode and train them simultaneously with the debugging of new technologies. Also, in working with personnel, an employee motivation system aimed at the successful implementation of the WMS system can be of great help.

The task of selecting and training personnel is also relevant for specialists themselves. high level. Very important factor the quality of automation is the experience of not only the specialists of the performing company, but also the members work team by customer. Particularly critical for any project, and especially a large one, is the experience and knowledge of the project manager from the Customer. The implementation of a WMS involves making many decisions regarding the construction of warehouse operating technology and personnel organization, therefore, first of all, the project manager must understand warehouse logistics, and also have the right to influence business processes and people involved in the project.

Summarizing all of the above, I would like to emphasize once again that truly high results from the implementation of an automated warehouse management system are possible only with the symbiosis of all of the above components. A technologically advanced WMS system, high-quality consulting at the stage of preparation for system implementation, and the competence of employees responsible for implementation both on the part of the customer and on the part of the contractor will ensure decent quality of the project.

Daria Lyubovina, project manager at AXELOT

WMS – warehouse automation through the eyes of the customer

E. Valkin, general
Director of Folio 2000 LLC
O. Sergeantova, Sales Manager at Folio 2000 LLC

Warehouse logistics automation, or WMS, a warehouse management system that is so popular nowadays, is usually viewed from the developer’s perspective, but potential customers often feel that the problems that concern them are not covered. In this article we will look at the application of a warehouse logistics automation system from the point of view of a consumer, rather than a professional supplier. The theses presented in it can be taken as a kind of guide for understanding the need to use a warehouse logistics management system for business, an overview of the options and opportunities that it can provide.

So, imagine that you are a potential user of a WMS system, and we, in turn, will try to consider the most pressing issues that arise when choosing it.

What is a warehouse management system (WMS)?

WMS (Warehouse Management System) is a warehouse management system, the operation of which is based on automatic identification technology using the principle of address storage and remote personnel management.

A warehouse management system allows you to automate and optimize the procedures for receiving, placing, storing, processing and shipping goods in warehouses of various types.

Dividing the warehouse into zones for the most efficient work, WMS manages the work and movement of warehouse equipment and employees across its territory, controls it, and quickly plans tasks for personnel taking into account the current situation. Her task is to manage the entire warehouse process - from waiting for goods to be accepted to their delivery according to customer orders.

At the same time, based on the actual needs of the customer, the scope of system implementation may vary from entry level(solution based on paper task sheets) to a fully functional option that manages the warehouse in real time, using barcoding technologies, radio equipment for data transmission (radio terminals and data collection terminals), positioning systems for warehouse equipment and other automation equipment.

Objectives of WMS and benefits from its implementation

Having behind us ten years of practical experience in the implementation of warehouse logistics systems, we see that customers want to solve such pressing problems with the help of WMS as increasing profitability of warehouse and trade operations by increasing trade turnover, reducing losses and costs, intensifying staff work and increasing the level of control.

At the same time, a desire is expressed for a quick payback of investments made in the automation of warehouse management, which is achievable only under certain conditions. For this purpose, we can recommend a system that is not too expensive and easy to implement, tested on a large number of objects.

By implementing a WMS system, the customer receives:

• orderly warehouse operation– all actions in the warehouse (shipment, reception, etc.) are performed in accordance with tasks issued by WMS;
• increasing work speed due to faster shipment and receipt of goods, lack of downtime and unorganized work;
• full control of the current state of the warehouse: with address storage, the program at any time determines the location and quantity of the required product in each cell (where and what is located); accounting can be maintained in several packaging units;
• reducing the number of errors when receiving, shipping and completing orders due to the presence of procedures for automatic verification of the task and the fact of its completion using radio terminals or data collection terminals with memory (excluding misgrading and theft);
• billing – pricing of services in secure storage warehouses, automatic invoicing of warehouse tenants based on the computer-stored history of warehouse operations carried out with the goods of a given company and the tariff conditions under the contract;
• optimization and control of product placement upon receipt and shipment using information about the storage conditions of a given product and the parameters of the location of the warehouse cell (including information about product batches, expiration dates, storage specifics, etc.);
• efficient warehouse space management will allow you to increase turnover with the same warehouse area, identify “low-moving” goods, and excess space for use in another type of activity;
• control of personnel and increased responsibility for their actions– recording the moment of the operations of unloading, receiving, moving, reconciliation, inventory, etc. and recording the workers who initiated this operation and completed it while maintaining history. The execution time is recorded in the database and thus a report on the performance of each employee can be obtained. Accurate knowledge of the workload of each employee increases labor productivity and is an additional motivation to improve its quality;
• relieving staff from routine work and coordinating staff work, reducing the number of employees involved in loading and unloading operations by reducing the time spent searching for goods in the warehouse and the time required to enter goods into a document. The program issues the loader a task on the radio terminal or a route sheet, according to which he accurately finds the right product;
• automatic calculation of piecework wages for warehouse workers using the data on completed transactions available in the program;
• the use of WMS eliminates dependence on the qualifications and mood of the staff, as it allows you to quickly train and use workers with low professional qualifications by simplifying work in the warehouse.

In what areas are WMS systems used?

The use of a warehouse logistics management system is relevant for all types of trade (wholesale, wholesale-retail, retail, trade networks with remote warehouses, trade from a warehouse in the presence of all types of traveling trade).

WMS suitable for automation all types of warehouses(warehouse complexes, warehouse networks, warehouse terminals, distribution centers, 3PL operators, warehouses of industrial enterprises producing consumer goods, including food products and refrigeration plant warehouses, secure storage warehouses), for automation archival storage and all types of activities related to the reception of large volumes of storage, their movement and preservation. They are also used to account for the storage and movement of material and technical assets.

In what cases should you think about implementing a WMS?

A warehouse logistics management system is necessary in all cases when the business process includes:

• large storage volumes and a large number of storage locations;
• a large range of stored goods and materials (more than 500 units);
• large warehouse volume (over 1000 m2), which requires optimization of the placement and targeted storage of goods.

WMS is necessary in secure storage warehouses for tariffing customer services (billing), as well as in the absence of too fast movement of goods (most of the goods remain in the warehouse for at least one day).

Criteria for choosing a WMS system

Let us present the criteria that the user needs to make a decision in favor of a particular program, in order of their importance, which was determined by the employees of the Folio company as a result of many years of observation of thousands of working and potential clients of the Folio WMS solution.

1. Assessing the capabilities of WMS in relation to the needs of the customer’s existing business process. For a correct assessment, a description of business processes must be provided or at least a pre-project survey must be carried out. Otherwise, an incorrect understanding of processes can lead not only to erroneous assessments, but also to fundamental errors in work.

2. Cost of the proposed WMS solution.

3. History of implemented WMS implementations.

4. Breadth of WMS functionality and its flexibility.

5. Prospects for the development of the program in parallel with the development of business solutions.

6. Easy to use WMS for staff.

7. Ease of staff training.

8. Availability of the developer to quickly resolve issues regarding warehouse logistics if necessary.

9. Adaptability of the system to existing software.

10. Adaptability of the system to the existing practice of business mentality and document flow (this is especially true when choosing imported systems).

Features of warehouse automation depending on purpose

Despite the apparent uniformity of warehouse management procedures - receiving, storing and moving goods using the principle of targeted storage, warehouses for different purposes will have their own specific application, and these features should be taken into account when automating the functionality of warehouse logistics. Folio's long-term experience of working with various clients has made it possible to identify some standard solutions for different areas of activity, which we will briefly discuss below.

When automating control distribution warehouse it is necessary to ensure the entire cycle of acceptance and shipment of goods belonging to different owners and received from different suppliers. Intensive trade turnover requires fast work with large volumes and a wide range of goods, clear identification of their location. It is necessary to form orders and send them on the day the order is received, while their types and specifics of formation may have different execution algorithms. It is necessary to ensure automatic control of shipped goods and automatic tracking of misgrading, take into account returns and make adjustments to the distribution already made.

Warehouse logistics in real time must guarantee the efficient use of warehouse space, determine the optimal (and, if necessary, minimum) level of warehouse stocks, and resolve the issue of their timely replenishment. And this, of course, is only a small list of tasks that must be solved in warehouses of this type.

When automating pharmaceutical and food warehouses the necessary requirements for a WMS solution are address storage and automatic control of storage conditions in accordance with specified parameters (temperature, humidity, etc.), automatic identification of product batches by shelf life, work with certificates, serial accounting of goods.

Automatic reconciliation of shipped and declared goods during intensive turnover will eliminate misgrading and ensure control of the quantity and range of goods shipped. At the same time, all actions of personnel and all movements of goods are recorded, including intra-warehouse movements and shipment to remote warehouses.

For industrial warehouses, having intensive trade turnover with a large range of materials used and finished products, a solution for automation of warehouse logistics will allow automatic labeling of places and storage units in different packaging, automatic recording of receipts and write-offs of generated orders in the WMS system, automatic verification of the declared order nomenclature, recording of defects, labeling, movement and accounting of finished products, control personnel actions.

In addition to the features listed above, the functionality for working 3PL operators must minimize costs, related to the processing and storage of cargo, ensure work with goods of different owners, automate intra-warehouse and inter-warehouse transfers, implement cross-docking work, as well as work with certificates, identify batches by expiration dates, automate the assembly of kits and products, packaging and repackaging, complete replenishment , return goods that do not fit in the car, carry out correction of an already made distribution.

In addition to a large set of automated algorithms for the receipt and distribution of goods, it is possible recommendatory(arbitrary) nature of distribution, in which the decision on distribution is made depending on the current situation, but at the same time information about the action taken is automatically recorded in the system.

A software for managing warehouse logistics should have an open and simple configuration interface that allows the user to set the new parameters he needs for cells (storage locations), goods and algorithms for optimal placement, shipment and movement of goods.

This non-exhaustive list of capabilities was compiled based on the requests of our very different clients, who for many years have optimized their inventory management using the Folio software package. All these options are implemented and actively used in the Folio WMS system.

How much time and money does it take to implement a WMS?

The proposed warehouse management system (WMS) is an implementation solution, not a production development, although the bulk of the tasks required for implementation have already been solved in a ready-made replicable system. In practice, there are cases when highly qualified customer employees, using only specialist advice and teaching materials, themselves carried out the successful implementation of Folio WMS.

WMS implementation scope may vary from entry level to full-featured system, working in real time. The choice of option is determined by many factors, such as the complexity of implementation, budget, etc.

Economy class level. “Folio WMS Kit” is a complete set for warehouse automation at storage locations along with radio equipment, installation and primary education for 5300 euros (set of programs and devices).

The program is combined with modern technological equipment and advanced warehouse management technology, and its cost is minimal on the market for similar solutions created in Russia.

The supplied set of programs and devices is used to work at a small warehouse facility or to begin work on automation of individual sections of large warehouses; it is easily expanded by purchasing additional copies of the program and equipment and can be the initial step in the automation of complex facilities.

WMS provides full-featured remote control warehouse, including personnel and equipment, in real time using barcoding technologies and radio terminals, remote control. The kit comes with installed and configured software, as well as a complete list of equipment that is necessary for the system to operate. The stated price also includes three days of training, setup, and startup assistance.

Full-scale WMS solution project allows you to automate the full cycle of managing the entire warehouse process - from waiting for goods to be accepted to their delivery according to customer orders and implemented by the developer's specialists.

Full-scale implementation of the Folio WMS system is aimed at automating enterprises, warehouses with large areas and networks with remote warehouses with tens of thousands of storage cells and thousands of items of goods, with intensive turnover and working with hundreds and thousands of incoming and shipped pallets per day.

It involves the use of high-tech warehouse equipment: multi-tiered racks, stackers, forklifts, conveyor lines, manual and forklift-mounted radio terminals, barcode scanners, laptop computers, different types product packaging: pallet, box, piece, container. Provides cross-docking.

This solution includes:

• pre-project inspection and preparation of preliminary estimates for work and programs performed;
• drawing up technical specifications in accordance with the customer’s business process (at his request);
• refinement and adaptation of the WMS solution to the customer’s tasks and business process;
• commissioning work related to the implementation and installation of software;
• commissioning work related to setting up the WMS hardware;
• post-warranty support after launch for 6 months;
• training;
• selection and delivery of recommended equipment at the request of the customer.

Implementation duration is from 1 to 6 months.

First level. Circulation (boxed) solution "Folio LogisticSklad" with software installation and its subsequent configuration.

Supports the functions of commodity accounting, warehouse logistics and personnel management using data collection terminals (when using a radio channel, an additional program is required "Folio Radio Terminal"). This solution is used if the enterprise is not ready for the full-scale implementation of “Folio WMS” or the implementation of the economy class product “Folio WMS Kit”, but has an urgent need to streamline the work of the warehouse with increasing the efficiency of its use, monitoring the status in real time with quick search for goods, saving the history of its movement and monitoring the actions of personnel.

It is used for low-cost enterprise automation and requires the presence of qualified and responsible warehouse personnel. The disadvantage of using the boxed version may be the incorrect organization of work on warehouse automation with insufficient qualifications of the employees implementing the WMS.

Installation and configuration of such a solution can be done by the customer or the developer.

Elimination of typical risks for the customer

The experience of the Folio company shows that the use of developer employees when automating an enterprise or warehouse automation, at least for the initial setup of accounting with minimal initial setup and pre-project examination of the business process of the customer’s enterprise, will allow you to avoid typical errors and risks of ineffective work associated with insufficient knowledge by the customer software functionality, will reduce commissioning time, put the enterprise’s work on stream and, in general, will save the customer’s financial resources.

Installation and initial configuration of the boxed version of “Folio WMS” takes 3–5 days, depending on the characteristics of the business process of the customer enterprise and the organizational work of its staff.

Independent implementation of WMS when automating enterprises requires full knowledge by the customer’s employees of:

• functionality of the purchased software;
• the current business process of the customer’s enterprise;
• abnormal situations of the customer's business process, the frequency of their occurrence and methods of resolving them using software.

An example of assessing the return on investment of implementing a warehouse logistics management system “Folio WMS”

The increase in income as a result of the implementation of Folio WMS was calculated by one of the enterprises with foreign investment, which has a large distribution network in different regions of Russia. According to estimates made by foreign owners, while maintaining the volume of trade turnover, the speed of shipment and movement of goods increased by 50%.

Only by saving the salaries of four warehouse employees with average salary 20 thousand rubles. during the year of operation of the system, the economic effect from using WMS amounted to 960 thousand rubles, thus, the funds invested in it were directly fully recouped.

Savings due to the elimination of mis-grading and theft amounted to 30% of warehouse turnover. Employees who committed embezzlement simply quit.

The comfort of work for the client and the enterprise itself has sharply increased due to the shipment and delivery of goods at exactly the specified time, specified nomenclature and specified quantity. There was no more downtime in the warehouse and no more searching for the necessary goods.

Recording and storing the history of all personnel actions made it possible to objectively argue for promotion or demotion wages employees, manage their actions, defining current tasks and increasing the amount of work, reasonably punish those responsible for mistakes made, provided there is documentary evidence of the actions taken.

This project used a full implementation cycle, which took 4 months: pre-project preparation with an assessment of the business process and warehouse characteristics, assessment of the recommended equipment and its characteristics, modification to business processes, implementation, support during the warranty period, employee training. The costs of the software and its implementation amounted to an amount less than the first six-month profit from using the system.