Food Logistics serves the entire food supply chain industry with targeted content for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.
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www.foodlogistics.com FOOD LOGISTICS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 43 channels, according to Chuck Fuerst, director of product strategy at HighJump Software. An adaptable WMS can provide all the tools needed to set up an in-store fulfillment operation, including order capture, store mapping, work queue management, wave planning and real-time inventory tracking. Fuerst says it can enforce the exact supply chain execution capabilities that are required to meet customer demand. A retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer can create new offerings and work flows to pro- vide value-added services to their respective customers, Fuerst says. These services include greater inventory visibility; the flexibility to dynamically schedule deliveries and select shipment methods; manage delivery directly to the customer along with back-end tracking and reporting; and seamless management of online orders and returns alongside existing retail channels. Manhattan Associates, based in Atlanta, Ga., has rolled out a system specifically designed to help retailers identify the most profitable order fulfillment option. It's called Available to Commerce, and gives retailers the ability to offer specific units of inventory available for sale in the most appropriate channel (online, store, same-day delivery, etc.) and then optimize how the order is ful- filled, based on strategic planning and daily operational variables. "There are many factors to consider in constructing the perfect omni-channel order: when you sell it, where you sell and to whom you sell it," says Brian Kinsella, Manhattan Associates' vice president of order manage- ment. "The ability to match inventory to demand without bleeding one channel to feed another is an essential element in today's retail environment." "Available to Commerce offers a game- changing capability for retailers as they can now differentiate between simple inventory visibility and a more thoughtful view of inven- tory availability," says Kinsella. "Through our order management applica- tion, retailers can gain a comprehensive view of their inventory across channels, determine how much of it should be offered across various delivery methods and channels, and identify the best path to profitable fulfillment," he says. Wave versus wave-less order fulfillment Multi-channel order fulfillment has caused some supply chain decision makers to take interest in "waveless" fulfillment strategies. Companies with large numbers of SKUs of uniform size and shape have traditionally not sorted down into individual orders when they are being picked, enabling more orders to be picked during a pick cycle. Instead, the WMS creates order waves to see how much labor and how much time it will take to complete each wave. This is known as "wave" picking. As the wave works its way through the DC, the WMS allocates how many downstream operators will be needed to pack orders once the picking process is completed. Once the items for the wave have been picked, they then have to be sorted into orders. The wave strategy makes sense when work- ing with a large volume of uniform products, but it creates issues when orders for different SKUs are received simultaneously. "You can't release the next wave until you reach a clear point," says Dave Simpson, executive sales man- ager at SSI Schaefer, the Germany-based logis- tics provider. Hence, some WMS systems have introduced "waveless" algorithms that update the order management system every time an order is assembled. Simpson notes that the "waveless" strategy can apply to either a goods- to-person or person-to-goods picking system. Download our new Cold Storage whitepaper at: us.viastore.com/coldstorage ■ Reduced labor costs by 50-75% ■ Decreased building footprint by 40-50% ■ Improved inventory and order accuracy ■ Increased facility throughput ■ Lower overall Total Cost of Ownership Scalable Automation Solutions for Cold Storage Warehousing www.viastore.com