As a CFO, have you considered what benefits you are missing out on by not having a warehouse management system? It is probably more than you think. So, in the spirit of FOMO, here are our top 5 things CFOs will miss out on without a warehouse management system (WMS).
Five benefits CFOs miss out on without a warehouse management system
1. Control Your Biggest Line Item
When implemented correctly, a WMS gives managers real-time visibility into their biggest line item, material cost. Using advanced filtering capabilities, a WMS can sift through the thousands of transactions that are generated, sometimes in a single hour, and alert managers immediately of non-conformances. What good is it to know even a day later which of your raw materials was non-conforming and caused your material usage variance to spike? With the right warehouse management system, your managers will have the intel they need in real time so that you are not the only one left answering questions after the fact.
2. No Physical Inventory Surprises
Nobody wants to discover a large negative adjustment at the final hour, right before posting a physical inventory. So why are cycle counting programs often met with resistance? A WMS can take a time-consuming, manual inventory counting process and turn it into something intuitive and easy for shop floor personnel. Once the pain is removed from the inventory counting process, along with it goes the resistance to cycle counting. Before you know it the department leads are squeezing in extra cycle counts because they want to check up on a suspicious-looking quantity in the system.
3. Better KPI Engineering
Decision-making is not for the faint of heart. The modern-day CFO tracks dozens of KPIs that enable managers to understand which levers need to be pulled to course correct. But if you made crucial decisions about selecting KPIs without a WMS, you probably missed out. By wirelessly combining live user entry, barcode scanning, pre-populated lookups, and live photo/digital capture all within the same app, a WMS brings freedom to measuring performance. An investment in the right WMS will give you the ability to engineer KPIs tailored for your business thereby ensuring the best information is used when making decisions.
4. Reduced Customer Turnover
Business can be complex, but no matter your industry the basics still apply. A warehouse management system reduces shipping errors, increases picking productivity, and improves inventory accuracy, all important aspects of the customer buying experience. Your customer service team will have real-time data at their fingertips whenever your customers call. Bolster your top line by not giving your existing customers any reasons to leave.
5. Effective Inventory Management
Often the largest current asset on the balance sheet, inventory is quite like having boxes of money out on the floor. Due to liquidity concerns, CFOs look to tighten up on inventory and turn it fast, but the Sales Director may not share in the enthusiasm. Organizations must strike a balance and stock the correct items at the correct times. And while item reorder levels are based on history or forecast, actual inventory consumption is based on the actual demand, and a disparity between these two numbers in either direction can be costly. With its ease of cycle counting, real-time feedback, and binned inventory locations, companies that use a WMS can have nearly 100% inventory accuracy. When inventory managers and sales executives learn they can rely on the quantities on hand in the system, they will be in a much better position to help when called upon to scale back on stocking levels due to tightening liquidity.
Bonus:
A WMS makes tracking inventory easy since exact locations are known. With that knowledge, pickers can be directed to the most efficient picking location and thereby reduce stock-to-dock cycle times. A WMS drastically reduces the likelihood of misplaced inventory, which in turn reduces the incidence of back-ordering, thereby lowering the average per-unit cost of freight. All of this can add up to substantial savings in inventory management costs.
Warehouse Management System for CFOs
Stop missing out on these benefits of a warehouse management system. Contact us today to learn more about WMS for SAP Business One and Macola.