Year: 2020

Warehouse Management Systems: Making Warehouses Small Enough for Management

Big, spacious, and vital these three words are some in a laundry list of adjectives that properly describes a warehouse. Every product that comes from an adjacent town, a neighboring state, or from across the ocean first lands on this gargantuan storage facility. From there, warehouse staff coordinates the flow of goods to be distributed to retail stores and other establishments.

Modern warehouses rarely use pen and paper to accomplish inventory tasks. Instead, they have sophisticated management system software that lets them cover more ground while allowing for close monitoring of the flow of goods. Considering their size, if it takes wheels to carry goods in and out of the warehouse, it also takes wheels to go around. Walking from one end of the warehouse to the other end wastes precious time and energy for the workers.

An integrated system of computers and scanning machines keep track of what is in storage, what is being moved, what has to move and what needs to arrive. The system does the work of roughly the entire warehouse staff taking inventory of endless rows of goods, finishing the job in less time. Warehouse management systems account for a significant portion of potential profit for the retail establishments as well as the warehouse itself. To put it figuratively, it makes the warehouse small.

Moving goods in large quantities may prove to be a challenge without warehouse management systems helping workers. Even if such systems are designed to reduce labor costs, the human factor is still a significant element of warehouse management. Goods will not scan and register by themselves, as warehouse workers have to do such tasks with portable scanners. The code for each marked item is sent to the computer for indexing and monitoring.

Warehouse software for goods management also has another benefit: ensuring that the orders are correct. Since there can be no room for error when deliveries need to be made, the system helps workers in locating the correct item for shipping. The system significantly lowers human error in distribution of goods, equivalent to more profit. With warehouse software, the tomatoes a retail store orders will not end up as potatoes.

It is possible for a huge facility to be managed by small but powerful warehouse management systems. When deliveries grow hectic, trust this innovative system to make every delivery fast and right at the same time. In the future, warehouses will still be the drop-off points for more goods. Fortunately, warehouse management software can still get the job done no matter how much it needs to work.…

How to Save on Home Heating Oil

Many homes these days still use home heating oil to keep their houses warm in the wintertime, as well as to heat the water in their hot water tank or for their washer and dishwasher. As everyone has probably noticed, anything that is made of an oil product has been going up in price on almost a daily basis.

The cost of your home heating oil depends on the cost of crude oil are, so the higher the price then the higher oil costs will be. Because of this, it behooves home owners who use heating oil to do what they can to save money. With just a little effort you can save between five and 10 percent on your oil costs.

There are a lot of ways you can save on your home heating bills. Some of these include things like checking your home for leaking cold air from the outside, especially if your home is old. Most people remember to check their storm windows for leaks, but did you also think about the crack under your doors? A lot of air can get through this seemingly small area. You can block the flow of cold air with a rolled up towel or a draft snake laid up against the door threshold.

Another place you might not think to check for air leaks is your electric wall or light switches. You can put insulation behind these to cut down on the flow of air.

It’s also a good idea to change the air filters in your furnace monthly so it has a clean filter. If the filter is dirty, the air is blocked and your furnace will have to work harder to heat your home, thus causing you to use more home oil.

Another simple trick is just to turn down your thermostat at night on both your home and on your oil-fired hot water heater. Remember, the furnace isn’t the only gadget in your home that may use home heating oil. You can buy a programmable thermostat for this so you don’t have to remember it yourself. Or, try washing your clothes in cold water more so you use less home heating oil.

Another good way to save money on home heating oil is to have a professional cleaning and inspection done every year on your furnace and your oil burner. If it’s clean, it will run much more efficiently. You can also call your utility provider and ask for a home energy audit, these are usually free and can give you some good recommendations on saving on energy, and thus using less home oil.

These simple tips and tricks could save you hundreds of dollars on your home heating oil because you will be using less of it. Besides these ideas, you can also try shopping around to see which company can give you the best price per gallon in your area. You can usually find this information on their …

Warehouse Automation After the Recession

It’s not a big secret, from the common man to the business industry that the recession has hurt them all. Through those lean times, companies of all sizes found that they were making changes, scaling back and even losing well more than anticipated. When the economy moves to a slump it hurts, from the smallest to the largest, with everyone else being caught in between. Now they say that when the bottom is hit there is only one way to travel and that is up. As the economy begins to show signs of growth and life, companies are finding that their phones are ringing, orders are coming in and profits are beginning to once again come through. Along with this, comes another change! For those looking to roll with the change, improve their competitive edge and even take their company to the next level they should really look at their warehouse operations! Yes, that’s right, the warehouse processes. Here’s a little more about why:

Turning The Focus; Turns On Greater Profits

Whether a company realizes it or not the warehouse and all of its operations are the profit backbone. This is where orders are filled, products, parts and pieces are stored and profits can be diminished if the company is not careful. The time that those products sit in that warehouse are lost money, as they are occupying space and not providing income to the company. Automating all of the warehouses process not only speeds the process, but also improves the operation, allowing for additional growth. Large warehouse operations have found that without warehouse management systems, they find holes in productivity. Those holes lead to errors, inefficient employees, wasted space, improper inventory levels as well as a ton of more issues. So, what should a company do?

Hire A Professional

Hiring a system integrator to review the warehouse processes can quickly detail the areas where the company needs improvement. This information allows for a movement away from ineffective or costly processes toward productivity, therefore meaning a better run operation. We all know that more productivity leads to increased profits! These professionals will look at processes such as inventory storage, order processing, kitting operations, order picking and replenishment. From that information they will determine how a warehouse management system could influence productivity as well as profit levels. These guys have the background to help warehouse operations from the largest giants to the smallest mom and pop run operations, meaning that everyone stands the chance of a leading edge, greater profits and a smoother run operation.…

Why Invest in Warehouse Management Software?

During a recession, businesses are often concerned with cutting costs and staying within budgetary guidelines. One of the best methods for securing company dollars is by acquiring an efficient Warehouse Management System (WMS). Though software may be costly to purchase, long-term savings are significant. Warehouse Management Software cuts cost and generates profit by improving warehouse operations such as shipping/receiving, inventory tracking, order replenishment and space management.

Shipping/Receiving: Choose Warehouse Management Software that includes inventory shipping and receiving functionality if you are a small or mid-sized warehouse. This function provides knowledge of when goods or materials are received, picked, put away, moved, inventoried or shipped. Does the Shipping feature allow integration with UPS WorldShip or FedEx? Having the integrated feature would save time by eliminating the need to rekey shipping addresses each time an order is shipped out. A receiving component allows order validation to decrease errors that could occur during the inventory receiving process. Imagine how quickly inventory errors would lead to increased expenditure.

Inventory tracking: The warehouse inventory function provides an inside view for goods moved within the warehouse after a physical inventory count is performed. This inventory component tracks goods to a designated location. Also know who has moved an item and the time the transaction was completed. Do you also have a need for lot, expiration date and serial number tracking? If this requirement is an important feature for you, this functionality is available in select warehouse inventory software systems.

Order Replenishment: Another key factor to cutting cost is avoiding inventory overages or shortages. A good warehouse application should allow you to know what inventory you have on hand, instantly. Knowing what materials are available avoids ordering more than you need, and knowing exactly when you need to restock. Some warehouse inventory systems integrate with QuickBooks so that you have a complete order management system.

Space Management: Software features such as sequenced pick and put away, basic cubing, and replenishment and zone picking help organize the inventory receiving process.

Through the use of efficient warehouse management, you will know what goods are received and shipped, which items are readily available, when you should reorder and storage space availability. These WMS features eliminate the need for tracking inventory via paper, so waste is reduced to further decrease the overall cost of running a warehouse. Reduced cost over time resulting from better inventory control equals a very good return on investment.…

How To Determine Whether Material Handling Systems Might Help Increase Your Productivity

Whether you are involved in manufacturing, shipping, or just handle any kind of large volume, you are always looking for ways to make your processing more efficient. After all, greater efficiency means more volume in less time, which means more overall profits. One way to help reduce waste and improve the overall performance of your facilities is by improving current material handling systems, replacing warehouse management systems, or installing new automated conveyor systems if none are in use. How do you know if your setup might be made more efficient? Follow these tips and find out.

Do You Have A Strategic Material Handling System?

Was there a lot of thought put into how things travel around your facility? If you are like many companies, the answer to that question is a definite no. Things were simply thrown together and put into place as needed, with relatively little strategic direction. As a result, things are almost certainly not as efficient as they could be. You likely have runs going in all kinds of different directions, and a lot more overall conveyor yardage than would be required, resulting in longer travel times. Streamlining this will almost certainly assist with overall productivity.

Is Your Automated Conveyor System Old?

If you haven’t considered updating your system in some time, it is likely that there is better technology available. Older styles still function, but they’re higher maintenance and often less efficient. They waste resources, which makes them suboptimal. If you’ve had your current setup in place for more than 10 years, you should strongly consider looking at newer options.

Has Your Stock Changed?

Companies naturally grow and develop over time. The products or goods that were once circulating around your factory may have changed slightly, substantially, or entirely. If this is the case, even something that was once custom designed to suit your space and your product may no longer be functioning at peak efficiency. There is a lot of design that goes into this kind of setup. If it’s designed for a lighter load than it needs to bear, inefficiency results. Likewise, if it’s bearing a lighter load than it was designed for, it won’t run properly. In fact, if it’s bearing a heavier load, it is taking a lot more strain than it was designed to and will likely experience increased breakdowns and high requirements for maintenance. These issues are resolved easily by considering updates.

Is Something Just Not Working?

If you notice a pervasive problem with a part (or multiple parts) in your chain, it’s probably time to re-evaluate everything. There are a lot of points of potential failure in even the best structures. If you’re noticing one acting up, it is likely that there are more just getting ready to show themselves. Make notes of anything that doesn’t run smoothly so you’re prepared to address it swiftly.

These are not the only signs indicating that replacing warehouse management systems …

How To Determine Whether Material Handling Systems Might Help Increase Your Productivity

Whether you are involved in manufacturing, shipping, or just handle any kind of large volume, you are always looking for ways to make your processing more efficient. After all, greater efficiency means more volume in less time, which means more overall profits. One way to help reduce waste and improve the overall performance of your facilities is by improving current material handling systems, replacing warehouse management systems, or installing new automated conveyor systems if none are in use. How do you know if your setup might be made more efficient? Follow these tips and find out.

Do You Have A Strategic Material Handling System?

Was there a lot of thought put into how things travel around your facility? If you are like many companies, the answer to that question is a definite no. Things were simply thrown together and put into place as needed, with relatively little strategic direction. As a result, things are almost certainly not as efficient as they could be. You likely have runs going in all kinds of different directions, and a lot more overall conveyor yardage than would be required, resulting in longer travel times. Streamlining this will almost certainly assist with overall productivity.

Is Your Automated Conveyor System Old?

If you haven’t considered updating your system in some time, it is likely that there is better technology available. Older styles still function, but they’re higher maintenance and often less efficient. They waste resources, which makes them suboptimal. If you’ve had your current setup in place for more than 10 years, you should strongly consider looking at newer options.

Has Your Stock Changed?

Companies naturally grow and develop over time. The products or goods that were once circulating around your factory may have changed slightly, substantially, or entirely. If this is the case, even something that was once custom designed to suit your space and your product may no longer be functioning at peak efficiency. There is a lot of design that goes into this kind of setup. If it’s designed for a lighter load than it needs to bear, inefficiency results. Likewise, if it’s bearing a lighter load than it was designed for, it won’t run properly. In fact, if it’s bearing a heavier load, it is taking a lot more strain than it was designed to and will likely experience increased breakdowns and high requirements for maintenance. These issues are resolved easily by considering updates.

Is Something Just Not Working?

If you notice a pervasive problem with a part (or multiple parts) in your chain, it’s probably time to re-evaluate everything. There are a lot of points of potential failure in even the best structures. If you’re noticing one acting up, it is likely that there are more just getting ready to show themselves. Make notes of anything that doesn’t run smoothly so you’re prepared to address it swiftly.

These are not the only signs indicating that replacing warehouse management systems …

The Best Time To Make a Change

If you say you want to change but then take no action you really don’t want to change. Is it really that simple? What do you think?

Upwardly mobile people are always getting new input in the form of new knowledge and information. This new input can fuel the fire of change or plant the seed of starting down the path of making a change.

Here’s a personal example then we’ll talk business…

What if someone realizes a particular habit or way of life is causing them to gain weight? If they learn a new (to them) idea for staying fit and because of this input they start down a path of “change” this is an example of mental input affecting physical reality.

For many years I operated a business that kept me on my feet and forced me to remain active without thinking about it. When my life changed and I made a transition to a new business that did not keep me active physically active I started to pack on the pounds.

At just twenty-nine I ended up with a “spar-tire.” It was depressing. I had been physically fit since my early teens and now I had blubber around my waist. What did I do? Two simple things really…

1. I cut out most sweets. Three times per week I’d eat a do-nut or piece of cake with my mid morning coffee. I replaced that bad habit. I eat fruit as a mid-morning snack now.

2. Next I learned that multiple “exercise” sessions during the course of the day do wonders to burn fat and keep your metabolism fired up. Maybe I “knew this already.” But there’s a difference between knowing and doing. In the past I only needed to “workout” once per day to keep fit. But my new “less physically active work” demanded I add another exercise session. So I tacked on another thirty to sixty minutes of moderate exercise without sacrificing work or family time. How? I just figured it out because I wanted to get rid of and keep off the spar tire more than I wanted to make excuses.

I’m happy to report I’ve held my weight steady at 190 for two years and I currently feel (and look) better than I did in my mid twenties.

I have more examples, but I figured that’d be the easiest one to start with.

So what about you?

Whether business or personal – is there a change you want to make?

In my internet marketing business I come across business owners who know they need to make a change to their overall web strategy. Some know their websites are crying to be updated because they are communicating a poor message to their best prospects. Some know how now is the time to add a “mobile website” because of the increased traffic from mobile devises.

Sadly… Not all take action. They are more comfortable leaving things the way they …

Biofuels and Renewable Energy: What Is a Biofuel Anyway?

Biofuels are a leading source of renewable energy, particularly as transportation fuels that would replace oil-derived gasoline and diesel. But when you think about it, oil deposits are derived from biomass that has decomposed and been compressed underneath the surface of the earth for millennia.A� Given that the origin of petroleum is biological, why isn’t oil considered a biofuel? What is the distinction between petroleum and, for example, ethanol or biodiesel? And just what exactly is a biofuel anyway?

These are fair questions worth answering, and I will try to provide some answers here.

First of all, biofuels are essentially defined as being derived from recently dead biomass, as opposed to long dead biomass that gives rise to petroleum. This distinction is not an arbitrary one. In fact, there is sound reasoning behind making a distinction between plants that were harvested (and thus made “dead” a few months ago) and biomass that “died” millions of years ago.

One of the main purposes of replacing oil-derived fuels and products with bio-based fuels and chemicals is to reduce the net carbon emissions. (Having an alternate fuels source that would keep a lid on the cost of oil supplied by an unfriendly, price-fixing cartel would be another useful purpose of biofuels.) In the case of biofuels produced from sugar cane, corn or plant waste, the biomass replacement occurs in less than a year as a new crop comes in. The new biomass is roughly equivalent to the carbon emitted when that biofuel is burned. Thus, the net carbon emission is near zero from that cycle, and that carbon cycle is complete within a year.

Contrast the situation with corn or sugar-derived biofuels with that of oil. The production of the petroleum requires millions of years. Thus, the replacement cycle time for petroleum that is burned is thousands of millennia rather than the length of a single crop cycle. In other words, it will require millions of years for the carbon emitted by burning oil to be reconstituted into petroleum for creating a second cycle of use as a fuel. It will only take a year or less for the carbon dioxide emitted from burning bio-ethanol to be reconstituted as sugar cane or corn for conversion into a new cycle of biofuel.

Therefore, it is the difference in the length of the carbon cycle that creates the distinction between petroleum, which is derived from long-dead biomass, not being a biofuel while a similar combustible liquid (ethanol or biodiesel) produced from recently dead biomass is a biofuel.…

How to Improve Warehouse Management Systems

Most of the warehouses in Europe have been on the move of employing new and technology-oriented mechanisms in an attempt to improve their warehouse management system. Before we go any further, one ought to know that the only way to get warehouse supply chains to improve is by employing acceptable and manageable warehouse management systems. As a large corporation, you need to appreciate each and every detail that will add value to your service delivery. Therefore, as a well-developed warehousing firm with the aim of gaining popularity in Britain and other parts of the European continent, I suggest that you employ the following.

E-invoicing: Paper invoicing has over the years become inefficient for large corporation. Most of the warehouses in Europe receive hundreds of paper invoices daily. Thus, for them to meet the demand of invoice reconciliation, they have to engage in employing large amounts of human labor. Basically, with the large workload and the urgency of fast responses, the management is prone to face many errors. Hence, the need of e-invoicing will not only improve on invoice reconciliation but also will help in delivering high quality services.

Another tip is to engage an adaptive supply chain network model, such as, warehouse management for wholesale distributors: in order to meet the challenges of the European market, a warehouse firm has to transform traditional linear supply chains into ecosystems. Thus, supply chains are transformed into adaptive supply chain networks.

Use of radio frequency identification: this latest wireless technology has the effect of increasing efficiency of a warehouse management system in that it provides a faster and reliable way of feeding a product’s information into a computer. With RF tags, a signal is broadcast with information about a given product including the location of the product in the warehouse unlike bar codes which need to be manually scanned in order to feed information into a computer.

The most successful warehouses in Europe have almost all of their operations computerized. Therefore, it follows that a warehouse management system has to maintain its inventory information in an electronic format. This way the management system will be able to improve on its accuracy while eliminating intensive paperwork. Moreover, with this format the management system can easily amend the inventory’s details of goods. In the same manner, the obtained information can be successfully used to maintain the visibility of the warehouse business flow. In conclusion, a warehouse has to use its existing resources wisely in order to meet its expectations.…

Green Energy Versus Nuclear Power

With the main UK political parties wanting to create thousands of new green jobs over the next ten years it will be interesting to see how we aim to become a market leader in green technology which is where China are currently the world leader. India is aiming to be a solar country within 10 years as it deals with decreasing fossil fuels and population growth that is gulping petrol and oil at an unprecedented rate.

The effects of climate change seem to be taking second place against cold hard cash and the lack of it as a result of the global recession. Global concerns on security are leading to countries wanting to become less dependent on others for energy which is essential for economies to grow and prosper. There is also the threat that countries considered rouge by the West are developing nuclear power for other purposes than for power.

Once a country develops nuclear power it is less dependent on others and nuclear is definitely needed in countries which are not blessed with the sun for solar power. On the flip side there is the never ending question of what to do with nuclear waste and this has not been resolved to date with all the modern technology that we have at our disposal.

The Conservative Party and Lib Dems have recently been voted in in the UK and they want to spend two hundred billion pounds investing in nuclear and renewable energy in the UK while cutting carbon emissions. These are honourable intentions but I am not sure where the money will come from as we deal with the biggest budget deficit since World War 2. Any increased target of increasing the amount of energy produced from renewable energy is the way forward as it reduces the pollution and environmental damage from fossil fuels.

News announced in May 2010 are that a proposed 40 million solar power development is being discussed in Cornwall which would triple the UKs solar capacity. This money is being raised from private investors which is great to see. Only when solar becomes profitable will we see the wide scale use but these schemes should be subsidised by the tax payer when it makes sense to do so. The use of energy created by sea waves are also expanding in the UK which is logical considering we are an island and more money should be invested in research and development. In parts of the country where there is little wildlife or threat of ecological damage then these are the areas where renewable energy should be concentrated as jobs will be created as a result also.

On a more smaller scale homeowners with surplus solar power are being encouraged to feed this back into the national grid for which they will be paid for.

As a summary it appears that nuclear energy has not been promoted as much as in recent times which is likely to be due to …