Warehouse system flexibility ‘vital’

Outsourcing
distribution to
specialist, logisticsfocused
companies
remains popular with shippers
but f lexibility in a warehouse
management system is key
to staying
competitive,
says Macro Millennium’s
Anthea van Breemen.
The software provider offers
both third party and fourth
party capabilities through its
Macro 2000 system, which
offers f lexible features that
adapt to each industry sector’s
requirements.
“For example, third party
logistics providers would
be required to handle the
warehousing and distribution
of a third party’s stock.
This includes receiving the
stock into the warehouse
or cold storage facility and
then recording the correct
information about the stock,”
explains Van Breemen.
But of course, each
industry has its own
requirements, she
adds, pointing out
that the perishable
goods sector is
controlled by
expiry dates
as well as
production
batch numbers
for recall and for the third party
customer’s costing needs.
“But for goods such as
manganese, cotton, or tobacco
for example, quality batch
numbers are imperative as
this is how the stock is sold to
the end-customer,” she says,
noting that
to facilitate
this, goods
are stored on
unique pallets.
“The pallets
have all the
relevant
information
linked to the
Macro 2000
system which
also enables the
pallets to be batched together
into a complete shipment,” she
says.
For breakbulk products, the
shipping yard can be mapped
onto the Macro 2000 system
and each location will have
this information attached to it
for the goods currently in that
location.
“On call-off the picking rules
set up in the system are applied
by stock type and only the
qualifying stock is identified for
picking and dispatch,” says Van
Breemen.
For fourth party logistics
service providers, Macro 2000
offers an
integrated
stock control
module that
can be used
for controlling
stock levels
for third party
customers. “It
also provides a
customer order
module in the
event that the
provider needs to take orders for
their customer, as well as a sales
module should there be a need to
invoice a customer on behalf of a
third party,” says Van Breemen.
This warehouse charge-out
and invoicing model is used to
automatically calculate storage
and other costs for the logistics
provider, she adds.
INSERT & CAPTION
THE Macro 2000 system
offers flexible features
that adapt to each industry
sector’s requirements.
– Anthea Van Breemen