Since the effects of the pandemic have decreased and the Russian conflict in Ukraine has started, the cost of living has subsequently increased significantly. Despite the eased lockdown restrictions, there has been an additional knock-on effect on national inflation across every aspect of the UK economy. The costs of warehouse space and various logistics surrounding them have increased financially and in complexity.
Making your storage space stand out from the crowd requires highly effective and accurate operations, including stock management. To surpass their competitors, many warehouse managers are improving their fixed processes by making them mobile.
Why Stock Management Is Vital
With the popularity of eCommerce business continuing to rise (with no end in sight), more companies are relying on efficient storage spaces to hold their good for sale and moving away from the increased overheads for brick-and-mortar stores on the high street. As a result, a recorded 15.5 million square feet of new warehouse space is currently under construction to fulfil this increased demand for space. Still, it’s, unfortunately, looking like a temporary fix.
The complications of logistical services have increased due to the availability of these services dropping by 22.4% last year as the commercial fleet sector struggled to handle the widespread driver shortages amongst similar increasing costs.
These events have created an imbalance between supply and demand and a more significant challenge to maintain accurate fulfilment. This has created fierce competition between managers, knowing that providing the most accurate and efficient service will determine success.
Working Wirelessly
Before the invention of various mobile solutions, all warehouse management had to be conducted at fixed locations. With paper records or static terminals, staff had to remember and record vital data, which presented opportunities for human error. In addition, it wasted time as team members were required to travel between the office and the warehouse to pass on information, such as stock levels, new orders and the progress of shipments.
These inefficient methods have since been replaced with superior mobile options such as:
Tools such as these enable warehouse team members to become autonomous units that can survey your inventory and adapt and record changes into a shared database wirelessly. This process substantially increases time management and produces far more efficient work.
With the increased demands put on fulfilment centres to complete work with no errors and at a faster rate, the usefulness of these devices becomes immediately apparent. Mobile computers allow workers to explore or update shared inventory management. Our mobile barcode app Go-Barcode® suite provides a versatile barcode tracking system within a handle portable barcode scanner. Finally, wireless, mobile printers eliminate the need for team members to constantly travel from a fixed printer and back again to get their labels and thereby increase their working productivity.
Wireless Site Surveys for Warehouses
When you plan to upgrade to a mobile warehouse environment, you need an effective wireless data setup that can handle your needs. The first vital step for building this portable, wireless setup is to conduct a site survey of your premises.
Wireless site surveys help managers build a clear road map for either installing or maintaining these vital wireless networks. Whilst the average person is accustomed to the concept of wireless wifi in their homes, employing a wireless network throughout your vast warehouse space can present unique challenges.
Wireless signal propagation is the movement of signal waves to and from transmitters and readers; essentially, it’s the quality and reliability of your wireless network signals throughout your building. This propagation will be affected by the constantly changing environment within a warehouse as large amounts of inventory are received and exported. This issue escalates with the size of the warehouse, creating profound changes in the physical space of your storage space.
Does Your Warehouse Have Full Coverage?
After investing in your mobile solutions, you want to ensure that it is working at their optimum ability. The quality of your warehouse network will significantly affect the ability of your devices to function, so managers need to be aware of the warning signs that your network is struggling and needs to be checked with a wireless site assessment.
Examples of these are below:
The efficient benefits gained from using mobile devices can quickly be lost if these devices won’t connect to the database. Apart from the inherent frustration, the intermittent disconnections will lead to potential data loss and the need to re-do work. Lost data is catastrophic for the fidelity of warehouse operations. Without access to accurate data, orders will be incorrect or late and make clients choose your competitors for their business in the future.
Devices may struggle to maintain a connection between access points and have reduced performance. Wifi roaming is when a mobile device will connect to a physically close access point and disconnect from the previous one as it is carried throughout your building. An ineffective network will have access points working at less than their full potential, creating gaps in connection and slower responding mobile devices.
Seamless roaming, a reliable connection and improved latency are all the goals you need to work for to gain the benefits of your mobile device management. This is why it’s vital to assess your wireless connections regularly to ensure its working at top efficiency.
Improved Stock Management Accuracy
Here at GSM Barcoding, we take great pride in our proven, practical solutions employed within many different warehouses nationwide. Discover our range of total integrated barcoding solutions for financially optimising warehouse fulfilment centres online.
