Page 54 - DMGT553_RETAIL_STORE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 3: Pre-Store Opening

picking Notes
validation
sorting

shipping
Features: Features of a DCMS also has the following:
crate management
supervisory control

reports
Benefits: An effective DCMS helps to prevent stock outs, stock pile-ups, pending orders and loss
of sales due to customer dissatisfaction. It improves the warehouse productivity and increases
inventory accuracy too. Other benefits include reducing operating expenses and improvement
in efficiencies.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
17. A distribution centre management system, or DCMS, is an enterprise oriented application
designed to track the activities performed in a .................................
18. The automated DCMS ensures that the goods are accurately shipped to the .............................
and .................................

3.6 Best Practices in Today’s Distribution Centre

The right people, processes, technology and tools help achieve the right results. In today’s
environment, speed through the distribution centre is critical. Whether they’re called throughput
centres, distribution centres, or warehouses, effective operations use best practices within the
four walls of the facility—and beyond.
“We think of best practices as doing all the right things with the right tools and getting the right
results. Every warehouse and distribution centre should have a best practices program. Such a
program enables companies to reduce errors, labour, and cycle time while increasing accuracy
and service.” A best practice program, if done right, never ends. “Opportunity to improve is
always there.”
What’s right for one company or facility—or even one product—is not necessarily a best practice
for another company, facility, or product. A number of best practices do apply to many warehouses
and distribution centres, however. They include the following:
1. Use advanced shipping notification (ASN). With ASN, suppliers notify receivers in advance,
letting them know they are shipping a specific purchase order, and giving an expected
arrival time. “While the ASN can be sent via fax, using advanced shipment notification
often implies an electronic data interchange or a web-based compliance module is used as
part of an overall warehouse management system,” McKnight explains. And, knowing
what is coming into the warehouse enables managers to replant receiving for the day.
“When you don’t have an infinite number of dock doors, you need to schedule inbound
receipts to increase dock utilization,” says McKnight. “You need to have a central point of
communication, and be very clear to the carriers about who to call, and when.”

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