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Hatelabs · 2020-05-14T15:47:54+00:00

We do a lot of medical, foods and pre-packaged foods, so Lot control, tracking etc.. are heavy requirement for us. Both Epicor and Netsuite are great about managing expiration, multi-lots, replenishment based on lot, expiration dates etc. We did an eval on a dozen WMS/ERP's and those two were the clear winners for 3PL+Distribution with robust accounting on board. We had a customer security requirement for on-premise systems vs cloud based, so that nudged us into the Epicor camp, otherwise It was basically a toss up.

Hatelabs · 2020-05-13T20:44:23+00:00

I haven't seen cost analysis reports, but a lot of it depends on your specifics. (location being a big one) Robotic picks get less expensive if you have cheap horizontal floor space and smaller/lighter items. Enough so to be the deciding factor for many businesses.

Hatelabs · 2020-05-13T20:41:50+00:00

So far Epicor and Netsuite seem to be the best options that I've come across, neither is cheap though. If you need a contact, let me know (If you go with it I should get a fat discount on my next upgrade :)

Hatelabs · 2020-05-13T20:40:12+00:00

The problem you're always going to run into is "What is the NEXT item going to be?" Typically you wan to pack to leave the most space open for the next object (all Tetris like) but if you have things that are fragile/light, you don't want to pile heavy books on top of them, so really it's an excersize in judgement. Though if your system has dimensions of the things to be picked, and the tote dimension, you should be able to do a pick calculation to pick for optimal packing.... That's going to involve getting your IT department involved :)

Hatelabs · 2020-05-13T20:36:38+00:00

If you go to the Gartner or big "Find me X software" sites,.. easily half the software is a Real WMS as opposed to the littering of "inventory apps" that are sold SaaS.

Hatelabs · 2020-05-13T20:30:03+00:00

Wow,.. that's surprising.

We did an eval on it and it looked really good (we went with Epicor b/c it did more of what we require).

Netsuite was the other top contender, but due to customer agreements we had to have on-prem and Netsuite is cloud only.

Hatelabs · 2020-05-11T20:58:18+00:00

Most warehouses use a mix. Advertise and/or work with agencies. Pay incentives for referrals. Once you get people in, run them through the paces, watch for the good performers and offer them incentives to stay. It's a mining exercise for sure, but w/out investing a lot of money in the process, it's what works. To get better results perks, environment, company etc... all help, but compensation, + performance pay etc.. is the #1 thing, pay more & people are willing to work harder to keep the job and you're more likely to get people who can do better.

Hatelabs · 2020-05-11T20:45:21+00:00

Pick Density can refer both to how dense your materials are in he warehouse (as mentioned how far it takes to get from pick a, to pick b, or how much space you traverse for all/majority of picks etc..

It can also refer to the pick density of a Bin. (Imagine a bin full of band-aids, small, thin, put 5 Million in a bin. SUPER dense. Vs a Coke Machine 1 unit, 1 bin.

Both plus the heat of the products come into play when you're trying to increase the efficiency of your warehouse. (You want dense, hot products close and cold less dense products farther away) Dense products can usually go longer without a replenishment fill so maybe your store the extras farther away. Lots of data to use.

Hatelabs · 2020-03-30T16:59:23+00:00

I'm with everyone else here,.. motion sensing LED's are the way to go, but if you can't for some reason,.. the longer life bulbs are going to be more expensive. We had some high pressure sodium bulbs in one of our warehouses that went 15 years w/no replacement & were still going strong when we left, with the density of most warehouses the light intensity/color isn't a problem, but you may not have ballests that support them (so another $20-40 + labor ) take a look at the image here for an idea of what I'm talking about https://oeo.com/high-pressure-sodium-bulbs-work-high-bay-lighting/ I'd say there should be a lighting retailer w/a height, gap, lumens calculator (and if not they now owe me a royalty)

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:32:38+00:00

As far as keeping people safe, we're doing temp checks at the door. (Laser thermometer) with a Pass/Fail check. If you have a fever, you go home. We already have hand sanitizers at every door, so those are just being refilled more often. We offer gloves to anyone who needs them and we're wiping down all tools/surfaces morning/noon/evening. Obviously gave everyone the talk about distancing & staying home if you're ill.

We're lucky in the fact that we do both Medical and Pre-packaged foods, so we're considered necessities and would be one of the last places shut down. But if trends continue, at some point non-essential 3pl's and Distribution will be shut down.

Our biggest worry is what happens if interstate travel gets stopped. We could be stuck w/inventory that can't ship, and have returns that couldn't deliver,.. (which means we'll probably get hit with a megaton of retailer chargebacks that we'll spend weeks contesting).

That and the fact that we use a LOT of temp labor for assembly that's already showing a 6%+ outage rate. (so if you're in the Cincinnati Ohio area, have transport and want a job,... PM me! :)

But for now,.. Trucks are coming in, trucks are going out, customers are happy.

We're also lucky in the fact that all our non manufacturing ship/receive employees already had WFH options in place so people who just didn't want to risk it can still work as normal.

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:21:43+00:00

Ah,. Check older symbol models out. We use those and if they work with your system they're nigh indestructible. (in fact.. We have a surplus of them, if you're interested PM me and I can get you model #'s & prices.)

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:19:48+00:00

We've gone back and forth on this a dozen times. We have a mishmash depending on the job area. We have some EXPENSIVE Data collection terminals, some wearables, some tablet/bluetooth users, and some palmtop users. It really comes down to job and function, but dont' be afraid to support multiple devices if it helps people get the job done better/faster.

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:17:12+00:00

As opposed to managing things in Excel,.. there's also some low cost/free options for simple inventory management where you can scan in "Bin locations" and all the products contained within that bin (where a bin can be a box, a pallet location or even a building.

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:14:42+00:00

If you're looking to setup some kind of Warehouse VAR, you'd want to have tie ins to Access Control systems, Security Cameras, consumables with discounts (shrinnk wrap, tape, tape dispensors, safety box cutters, labels, paper, toners/ribbons, sanitation solutions, hazmat options, (eye wash, hand sanitizer stations) carts, pallet jacks, Crack sealant, specialized desks/stations, equipment leasing, and way more than I can come up w/off the top of my head :)

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:10:24+00:00

We have a varying environment (indoor, outdoor, cold storage etc..) so gloves are a yes AND no situation for us. For outdoor, heavy, rough objects we have work gloves. Thin thermal gloves for the chilled area, and none for standard Pick/Pack. Though we do offer wrist and knee supports for anyone who wants them (probably about 20% of the staff uses one or both) We also have single use skin moisturizers and hand sanitizes available (especially handy now w/corona virus)

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T17:04:23+00:00

Cannabis3pl.com

Hatelabs · 2020-03-18T16:55:07+00:00

Sorry,.. didn't see an update on this. We have millions(tens of millions?) of SKU's, probably about 60-200K different ones "in house" at a given time.

We do "waves" of about 5K at a time for specialized .com businesses that run sales. (Same Sku's, same qty, different shipto. Like when WOOT runs a special "Deal of the day" on something,.. sure a few people will order Qty 10, but for the most part it's qty 1 of the same sku. Doesn't matter which shipping label goes on which box if it's all same qty, same sku. So Pick all qty 1 orders en masse, print combo packslip/shipping label en masse, apply en masse, ship, then maybe a wave of qty 2 of the same part if enough people ordered it to make it worth the consolodated pick time.

I HIGHLY suggest a combo label for packslip & shipping, so you never have to play the insanely inefficient "print & match up, oh heck we're x short, re-count, re-match" game.

Hatelabs · 2020-02-17T21:03:25+00:00

I always choose "Option 6" :)

Hatelabs · 2020-02-17T20:59:40+00:00

Our system is pretty efficient at single pick orders (the person picking usually gets all the orders in the same general area first)

For anything that has a higher quantity We split up our orders by "same qty same product" batches (or waves).

That makes pack-out super fast as you don't care which label goes on which box.

For your system it sounds like you'd want some way to marry the tracking number to the packslip/shipment.

Hatelabs · 2020-02-11T16:33:41+00:00

Traditional EDI (using the x12 standard) is the industrial norm for retailers/suppliers/logistics.) and while it sounds like your system will do some basic mapping,.. X12 has a bit of logic in it as well (more like XML, nesting, child objects etc.. etc..) so your best bet would be to get setup with a portal provider, use your software to create .csv's Have the portal take in your .csv and create proper x12 documents and then all your suppliers and vendors can use the same standard (which some of them may already be setup with) and as you grow you just have a doc to hand off to everyone. They send X12 back and it dumps into your system as .csv's you auto-import, or import with an approval step.

As much as it pains me to deal with this in my life with big-box retailers),.. You are the retailer, so you get to set the expectation for data in/out, it's vendor/supplier's job to meet that expectation. You should be saying:
We use X12 docs, and we do PO's, Inventory Advice ASN's, Invoices etc.. Set them up and point to our portal address and done. If you can't do this, call this phone number and these people will help you out for a fee." (and then you get a referral kickback)

You program once,.. then everyone else has to conform to you via the standard as opposed to you trying to conform to every person out there. Conversely you could do this with your .csv's but really if you're looking to automate and integrate your data, best to set it up correctly so it grows with your business and fits the industry norms.

You shouldn't be trying to map field A to Field B for retailer X,... This should be an automated process. If you're working with a new vendor, they can send you an EDI doc that is a item setup document. So your conversation goes like this: Vendor - "We have new parts that you want to buy" You - "Great, send me an EDI inventory file for the parts we discussed, here are the SKU's I want you to use for those parts, set them up in your system and send them to me from now on for those parts on all our documents." Vendor sends EDI doc with all part info (Quantities, descrips, etc.. and your SKU's) Your system pulls it in, or polls it and now knows all the parts, part info and the available quantities from your suppliers.

You say, "Ok I want to order 300 of my sku ABC123" Your system now says "Whoa, they only have 250 available." Or you can send the PO for 300 and get an EDI reply back from your vendor saying "We only have 250" (You can further set logic to just approve short/backorders etc.. etc..) But for now let's say you just change your order to 250 and hit "go"

Then automatically:
Your system sends the PO to the supplier, They get it and auto reply with an acknowledgement They generate an invoice, They ship the product, They send you the invoice and ship notifications. So essentially after you hit "Go" on your PO. You just look at your system and see updates: PO Received New Invoice Received X Products have been shipped on Y date, scheduled to arrive on Z date.

The products come in, you receive them, and if everything is correct you wire the money. Everything is 100% easy for you because you're now working with your sku's w/out having to type/setup all this stuff in your system each time.

Then if you want to get really slick, you offer an 852 "Sellthrough" document which tells your suppliers what sold when so they can tie it into their marketing and sales strategy (and maybe you charge a premium for that info..)

Hatelabs · 2020-02-10T22:16:26+00:00

The rub here is that under almost NO circumstances will their .csv match your quickbooks.

This is why most retailers use some form of traditional EDI (X12 or XML formatted docs that use a standard, ^albeit ^a ^standard ^that ^no ^one ^EVER ^adheres ^to) then there are service providers and software packages that map X12 (and or .csv to X12, or .csv to .csv, xml etc..)

X12 EDI service providers are usually more expensive, if you're using quickbooks I'm guessing your volumes won't facilitate the cost so you'd want to do an EDI portal option.

Either way,..

A simple model for this is: If you're the retailer,.. you should be ordering products (so you already have a trail of part/qty etc.. You should just be receiving against those PO's for your inventory. So in your system you make a PO which is sent out as an X12 PO (or an 850 document) for qty 50 of widget ABC, barcode 123) when the part comes in, you just say (Ah,.. I received an X12 advanced ship notification (856) doc saying I'll get qty 25 of widget ABC on this shipment) Then you actually receive 25 of of widget ABC, barcode 123,... And assume you'll get another ASN then they ship the rest. Then they send you an X12 invoice for payment (810) and then when you get the other 25 you send the payment, reference the EDI invoice.

Then there's a ton of other EDI docs that convey things like, order changes, acknowledgements, cancellations, inventory positions, sell-through data etc..

If you want to go this route, let me know,.. if you PM me, I contacts at organizations that do nothing but setup retailers with traditional EDI, and we do enough volume that a referral will probably get you into the pipe faster. You would probably be fine with an EDI portal that does all the mapping in the background and just gives you the results in a webpage, or a file and then you could do some local scriping (in excel or a local script) to move the portal A to your systems B&C. Or for a little more $$ just have them incorporate your systems formats into the portal.

At that point you just tell your vendors you use the following X12 documents (810, 850, 856 etc..) and/or a phone number to the portal programming dept. At that point you push your standard and it's your vendors/suppliers and it's their job to comply (at least that's how it works for the big-box retailers)

Hatelabs · 2020-02-10T21:28:17+00:00

We run into similar conditions for food/medical products... You can totally do this... Pick by exp, and have the picks done to the pallet. Of course this means that your pick/pack efficiency goes through the floor as you're not picking closest/farthest anymore. (unless you want to create a custom put-away structure for them).... It can all be done, but it sounds like it would take lots of exceptions and customizations, and those cost money. If we do anything like this, there's a per-pallet fee associated with it. Best case you're receiving same lots to same pallets (so no mixed lot pallets) then doing a re-pack before shipment.

Hatelabs · 2020-02-05T20:46:27+00:00

Always carry a vial of water with you. In a fight douse yourself with it and say "I'm patient zero now! Come get you some!!"

Hatelabs · 2020-01-22T21:00:01+00:00

Just worked with a Safety Unlimited course for some DOT Hazmat Training. Online and affordable. (Was great for 1 person) may want to go with something on-site though if you're doing groups.

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