Totally paperless warehouse ‘not impossible’

30 Sep 2015 - by Liesl Venter

As the environmental lobby

gains momentum, the

advent of the totally paperless

warehouse is not as impossible

as it may sound, says Anthea

van Breemen of Macro 2000.

And nor is it necessarily an

expensive option.

“Radio-frequency

Identification (RFID) is here

and can achieve that paperless

warehouse environment, but

bar code scanning is still the

less expensive option.”

According to Van Breemen

bar code scanning

has long been the

performance booster

of the warehousing

industry, possibly more so in

cold storage, and can be used

very successfully across the

supply chain – even in container

tracking.

“Bar code scanning gives

you better accuracy through

elimination of human error,

versatile, rapidly available

information, and data integrity.

Scanning improves inventory

control when used correctly

as every movement in or out

of the warehouse, cold store

or container depot is recorded

at actual inventory item

and not the planned item,” she

explains. “What happens in nonscanning

environments is that the

planned inventory item cannot

be located, so

a similar item

is dispatched,

but the original

is taken off

the computer

system. With

bar code

scanning,

planning is just

that, a plan to

move specific

inventory

items,

but at dispatch the actual

items moved are scanned

and the system is updated

with the correct inventory

leaving the premises.”

Van Breemen says

bar code scanning

also improves the speed of

transacting, with variance reports

for checking and balancing before

closing off any documents and

updating inventory.

“We have taken this a step

further and moved towards

eliminating paper even more.

Forklift truck drivers now have

tablets in

their vehicles.

Instructions

for picking or

to put away are

automatically

sent to their

devices. These

are listed by

priority, where

a priority can

be changed or

re-organised

by the

operations manager should

this become necessary instead

of giving them instructions on

paper.”

Automatic emailing of

all documents and reports,

she says, has long been an

integral part of the Macro

2000 software, all of which

contributes to a paperless

environment.

INSERT & CAPTION

Radio-frequency

Identification (RFID) is

here and can achieve

that paperless warehouse

environment.

– Anthea van Breemen