Improving goods-receiving: The impact of automation and outsourcing
Konecranes Agilon
Agilon warehouse automation: efficient, optimal, scalable performance—swift, seamless operations with 100% accuracy.
Considering the benefits of automating and outsourcing your work
By automating and outsourcing your goods-receiving process, you can significantly streamline operations, reduce errors, and free your team from manual tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic activities. Imagine the time saved by not having to manually sort, inspect, and put away goods. This could be a game-changer for your business.
Challenges
"Where are the goods? Where is the purchase order? Have you seen the papers? This process should be shorter!" If you find the goods-receiving process challenging, there's a more efficient way to handle this task.
Goods receiving involves receiving materials from your supplier and placing them into your stock. Here’s a high-level overview of the basic goods-receiving process:
The process overview
The process involves both physical processes and system steps. Systemically, it initiates at the supplier's site, where initial procedures occur. Due to unique methods and systems across companies, there is significant variation in how these steps are executed.
The process can be explained in terms of physical and systemic steps. System-wise, it starts at the supplier’s site. Different companies have different methods, but generally, it involves unloading the truck, conducting a preliminary quality check, moving goods to the receiving area, updating the system, performing quality inspections, and moving the materials to stock.
Detailed process
The process begins with unloading the truck. Following unloading, a preliminary quality check is conducted, and the goods are transported to the receiving area. This may include internal or external movement to a different building. At this stage, the system is updated by recording the materials against the outstanding purchase order.
Quality checks vary from counting materials to thorough inspections. Materials are then moved to the putaway area and subsequently to stock. In some cases, materials can be transferred to stock without quality department approval but are typically "blocked" until given the green light. The system updates accordingly during the stock movement.
Outsource your goods-receiving!
Warehouse automation can drastically improve your processes. When implementing warehouse automation, it's crucial to rethink and renew your processes. At Konecranes , we focus on process renewal through automation and digitalization, making processes faster, more efficient, and error-free.
Step 1: Agilon
Implement Agilon at your site to streamline the goods-receiving process. Here’s how Agilon affects the goods-receiving process and enhances efficiency:
Agilon manages the process from the receiving area to stock. It also handles system steps with its Smart WMS (Warehouse Management System) to manage inventory and purchasing processes. You can perform all needed transactions from Agilon workstations.
Agilon automates counting, checking, and tracking, ensuring 100% accuracy
The system takes a picture of the materials for easy quality checks and offers 100% tracking accuracy, allowing for easy quality control and claims management.
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Upon receiving the goods, the Agilon robot automatically places them in stock and updates the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in real-time.
By default, Agilon uses the FIFO (First In, First Out) principles for inventory management to ensure that the oldest materials are used first.
One advantage of the Agilon warehouse management system is its flexibility in handling different types of boxes. It allows you to consolidate various materials into a single box and use dividers to separate them as needed.
Additionally, Agilon supports multiple access points in the goods-receiving area, which helps streamline the process. Significantly, this flexibility extends beyond goods received to optimize efficient order-picking processes in subsequent steps.
Step 2: Agilon and VMI / Consignment Stock
Some materials in your warehouse are ideal for using VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory), consignment stock, or a combination of both. VMI means your supplier maintains inventory at your site, so you don’t have to place POs or monitor re-order points. The supplier ensures you always have the agreed-upon stock levels. If the supplier retains ownership of the products until use, this is consignment stock.
VMI is handy for indirect procurement materials or C-items (slow movers/low-value), minimizing the time spent processing orders and deliveries.
Visual Comparison
Comparing traditional goods-receiving processes with and without Agilon clearly illustrates how Agilon simplifies and automates tasks, improving overall efficiency and accuracy.
Highlighting the impact of Agilon and VMI, Agilon enables complete outsourcing of your goods-receiving process. Suppliers deliver directly to Agilon via designated access points, eliminating the need for them to enter your building entirely.
The key functionalities and benefits of Agilon in the goods-receiving process:
Conclusion
This article highlights how Agilon and Smart WMS can redefine the goods-receiving process with advanced automation, improved tracking, and streamlined workflows. Would you like to see these benefits in action within your operations?
Our Key Takeaways for You
Parcel Sales Manager at Vanderlande
8 个月Very interesting! Using automation to improve your workflows & streamline materials handling from inbound to outbound processes within a warehouse environment not only increases productivity but also eliminates rework & inventory errors.
Agilon Warehouse Automation Business at Konecranes
8 个月Warehouse automation is a game-changer for optimizing efficiency and productivity in warehouse operations. I highly recommend exploring the insights in the latest Konecranes Agilon expert article!