Excellence in Inventory management with Crave InfoTech’s warehouse automation.

It's crucial for managers to have accurate knowledge of stocks available in their warehouses, stores, and during transit to ensure timely sales requests, plant spare parts requisitions, and stock replenishment cycles. With a smart inventory management system, managers can maintain optimal stock levels while reducing holding costs and improving supply chain agility.

Crave InfoTech's cWarehouse solution digitizes and streamlines all processes related to inventory and warehouse management, from unloading, sorting, put away, bin to bin transfer, cycle counting, pick up, packaging, and shipping. This solution provides comprehensive control, visibility, and agility to inventory and warehouse operations, resulting in improved warehouse processes.

RFID and barcode enablement

As a valued partner of SAP and Zebra Technologies, Crave InfoTech has a significant advantage in delivering comprehensive end-to-end warehouse solutions, leveraging platform intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and streamlined applications. Our solutions are designed to be scalable, easily adoptable, intelligent, and future proof.

At Crave, we specialize in RFID and barcode enablement for our clients, which forms the cornerstone of many automation processes. By scanning an item, users can capture its details quickly and efficiently, making the entire process fully digital and fast, while improving precision and reducing time. Additionally, we provide portable printers capable of printing labels on the go with RFID/barcode information. Throughout this article, you will see many instances where RFID/barcode scanning is a critical feature for capturing data.

As the stock comes in | Goods receiving to put-away?

The process of unloading trucks and sorting incoming stock in a warehouse can be streamlined with Crave InfoTech's app, which provides a guided workflow to simplify the process for users.

Using the app, warehouse handlers can create "handling units" on the spot, which are packages that hold items. This eliminates the need for parallel or manual work, and relevant labels for these units can be printed with just one click in the app. These labels contain a QR or barcode.

To link individual items to the handling unit, users scan each item as they pack it in the unit, which pairs the items to the handling unit. Later, by scanning the label of the handling unit, users can easily access information about all the items it holds.

When the handling unit is taken to its designated bin, which has a labeled code, users can scan the bin code and the unit code to pair them in the system. This enables the app to display all handling units in the bin and all the items in the handling unit with just one scan of the bin code.

Through this process, Crave InfoTech ensures optimal data capture and synchronicity in the put-away process for a smart inventory management system.

Internal processes | Bin-to-bin transfer and Cycle counting?

After completing the put-away process using the Crave app, managers gain precise visibility of each item in the inventory, including its exact bin location. This information makes it easy to pick up, count, and ship items as needed.

Having complete visibility of held inventory also improves the Available to Promise function within the warehouse. This function establishes the lead time for supplying any part or item in response to a sales request. By checking inventory availability and identifying the next available date for unavailable items, the warehouse can provide precise lead times to requesters, streamlining procurement for plants and managing distribution channels.

Additionally, cWarehouse facilitates other internal processes like bin-to-bin transfer and cycle counting. The warehouse must regularly reposition its inventory based on factors such as delivery urgencies and stock adjustments. Handling units or individual items can be easily moved from one bin to another using the app.

The user just follows the path to the exact bin location as shown in the app.?

Click on ‘search’ and the app will find the item: However, if there is a challenge and they can’t find the location - the app has a ‘search’ feature that guides the user to the item. They just have to select the item in the app and click on ‘search’. The app would guide them with a series of beeps (like a metal detector) to the exact location of the item.??

Once at the destination, they can scan the bin. This will give them the list of all items in that bin. They can pick the required item, unpair it from the original bin, and take it to the new bin. Here they again pair the item with the new bin to finish the process.?

If the item is in the handling unit, they can follow a process in the app of ‘unpacking’ of the handling unit. This unpairs the old unit from the item. They can then create a new handling unit in the system and pair it with the required item (to put it away in a new location).?

Cycle counting: Inventory cycle counting is a very important part of warehouse management. This gives the managers the current stock levels. This is a regular and timely exercise within the warehouse. However, when done manually it takes a lot of time. This time is detrimental to the overall supply chain. If the managers get delayed info about the stock levels, their decision making would also be delayed.?

Here, the Crave app plays a very important and efficient role. The users can follow a simple process in the app to quickly conduct cycle counting of the entire stock or of select product categories.?

Bulk-scan and multi-scan for counting: The users can simply bulk-scan by swiping the scanner over multiple items. This would instantly scan them into the system. This saves a lot of time and has high accuracy.?

They can swipe over a bin (holding multiple items). This would scan the bin and show the list of items in it (as per record). It has also scanned the actual items in that single swipe. So, in the system it would show a list of on-record items and also highlight the missing items (any discrepancy). All this inventory counting is done in a minute.?

Just like the bulk-scan, the multi-scan is a feature which allows the user to know all the ‘categories’ of products and their count in a single swipe. The user would see an exact count as per each category held in the destination area.?

In-and-out inventory counting: There’s a lot of inventory moving on forklifts or dollies in a warehouse. They move from one room (area) to another. The managers can install stationary scanners at strategic points (like entry and exits). This would auto-count the inventory as it moves through them. Just like bulk-scan, it would also show the missing items for a complete set (like an order or bin).?

The app also simplifies the picking and packaging of items for shipping. Users can easily locate items in the appropriate bin by scanning the handling unit. Once located, they unpair the item from the handling unit and move it to the packing station for shipping. The app captures all relevant information instantly, ensuring accurate inventory management.

By streamlining these processes, the app reduces the need for manual intervention and paper usage, which improves sustainability for clients. It also reduces overall resource and time costs associated with warehouse management, while boosting efficiency, visibility, and control within the warehouse.

If you want to know more details about our Inventory and Warehouse Management solution, check our website .?

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