The article presents an example of solving problems related to warehouse management in an enterprise in the form of a proprietary IT system called “Storage System”, which takes into account criteria such as: flexibility, efficiency, effectiveness, and the security of logistics operations. The implementation of the discussed system was successfully carried out in one of the domestic enterprises in the Łódź Voivodeship, and development work is currently underway to add new modules.
Operating an enterprise without a system supporting the flow of logistics processes can now be considered almost impossible. An IT system well-matched to the management policy of a given organization means a number of advantages and benefits for the user, as well as for the company. Above all, it must be designed and implemented in accordance with the convention and using the JAD (Joint Application Design) methodology.
This methodology consists of selecting an appropriate group of employees who will discuss and resolve problems related to the construction, implementation, and operation of the system. The selection of this group is significant because the practical knowledge and experience of the project participants are extremely important. The modularity of the application ensures its flexibility, and thus easy adaptation of the system to the requirements of the enterprise. A user participating in the construction of the system becomes deeply convinced of the purposefulness of its introduction. The very contribution of the employee’s skills and willingness to create it determines the future efficiency of the system and the identification of the rest of the users with it. Currently, there are many systems on the market supporting the management of areas such as: finance, sales, transport, but there are few applications focusing on effective warehouse management intended for SMEs. Furthermore, not every application is flexible enough to be adapted to the needs of a given enterprise, taking into account the specificity of warehouse and technological processes (receiving, storing, issuing goods, setting rates).
The company that wins on the market is the one that guarantees high quality of its services and the innovation of introduced solutions; but also the one that takes care of the quality of maintained customer relationships. The above requirements are met by the “Storage System” application, which provides the client with constant access to information about the goods stored by them, along with the possibility of checking current receivables from anywhere in the world.
In this aspect, “Storage System” allows for outperforming the competition by guaranteeing the client 24/7 insight into the warehouse processes taking place with the participation of their goods. The application itself ensures satisfaction with using the company’s services, while the enterprise gains a loyal partner. Relationship marketing is a key element in the electronic economy, which finds its strong resonance in the world of the Internet, and the tool providing access to the system is a standard web browser, as in the case of “Storage System”. The use of the network and a properly built system supporting warehouse management provides, among others:
– acceleration of information flow,
– elimination of errors and data entry repeatability,
– increase in the degree of human resource utilization,
– replacement of paper documents with electronic documents,
– reduction of operating costs (e.g., telephone, FAX),
– flexibility of working time,
– possibility of ongoing monitoring of warehouse processes,
– facilitated transition from the local to the global market,
– elimination of “payment bottlenecks”,
– acceleration of document circulation.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka”, No. 5/2006.