The Serialized Data Challenge
Are You Able to Capture Serialized Data in Your Warehouse?
In this document we discuss an approach to serialization that results in immediate compliance, business benefits, and provides a positive return on investment for your company.
For most manufacturers and distributors, tracking non-serialized product in the warehouse is relatively straightforward: material arrives at the receiving dock, is put into locations, moved between bins or warehouses, is picked for manufacturing, or is picked, packed, and shipped out the door. Fast forward to the need to capture serialized data and the process is not so simple.
Now, the pharmaceutical, chemical and food & beverage industries have pending regulations requiring …show more content…
Many companies tend to focus on the initial step of retrofitting their packaging or manufacturing lines so they can apply serial numbers to each unit. However this is only a partial solution, as it does not consider the tracking of these items through the distribution process. As a result, distribution operations are saddled with extra manual steps and productivity and throughput rates suffer.
One option to handle the serialization challenge is to separate the serialization requirements from the warehouse transactions. This requires the operator to perform two steps for serialized products; one for warehouse operations and then another to capture the serialization data. This is an inefficient solution that does not scale.
Another option is to install a warehouse management system (WMS) or modify your existing ERP warehouse module if feasible, to handle serialized transactions. Both are costly alternatives. The third approach is to install a warehouse execution solution. These solutions are fully integrated into your ERP system, manage the processing of serialized and non-serialized product concurrently through the same set of transactions and update back office systems and serialization repositories as …show more content…
• Ensure your enterprise serialization solution is capable of supporting all locations to which you ship product.
• Assess the flexibility of your warehouse and supply chain systems and processes to ensure they will meet future regulatory compliance as global mandates change.
• Obtain proper buy-in from every functional area affected by the serialization effort.
• Make sure you size your systems for growth.
Conclusion
Are you able to capture serialized data in your warehouse? Have you considered the impact of serialization across your entire organization? Do you have the ability to leverage serialized data to provide operational efficiency, reduce risks, and be compliant? If not, the solution is a warehouse execution system.
The serial-aware warehouse execution system will allow your distribution center to experience a host of additional operational benefits, including the ability to:
• Track serialization data as well as business relevant context data on every unit.
• Boost order accuracy.
• Improve workload balancing and planning.
• Analyze every facet of order fulfillment to speed processing and improve customer service.
• Improve returns
Are You Able to Capture Serialized Data in Your Warehouse?
In this document we discuss an approach to serialization that results in immediate compliance, business benefits, and provides a positive return on investment for your company.
For most manufacturers and distributors, tracking non-serialized product in the warehouse is relatively straightforward: material arrives at the receiving dock, is put into locations, moved between bins or warehouses, is picked for manufacturing, or is picked, packed, and shipped out the door. Fast forward to the need to capture serialized data and the process is not so simple.
Now, the pharmaceutical, chemical and food & beverage industries have pending regulations requiring …show more content…
Many companies tend to focus on the initial step of retrofitting their packaging or manufacturing lines so they can apply serial numbers to each unit. However this is only a partial solution, as it does not consider the tracking of these items through the distribution process. As a result, distribution operations are saddled with extra manual steps and productivity and throughput rates suffer.
One option to handle the serialization challenge is to separate the serialization requirements from the warehouse transactions. This requires the operator to perform two steps for serialized products; one for warehouse operations and then another to capture the serialization data. This is an inefficient solution that does not scale.
Another option is to install a warehouse management system (WMS) or modify your existing ERP warehouse module if feasible, to handle serialized transactions. Both are costly alternatives. The third approach is to install a warehouse execution solution. These solutions are fully integrated into your ERP system, manage the processing of serialized and non-serialized product concurrently through the same set of transactions and update back office systems and serialization repositories as …show more content…
• Ensure your enterprise serialization solution is capable of supporting all locations to which you ship product.
• Assess the flexibility of your warehouse and supply chain systems and processes to ensure they will meet future regulatory compliance as global mandates change.
• Obtain proper buy-in from every functional area affected by the serialization effort.
• Make sure you size your systems for growth.
Conclusion
Are you able to capture serialized data in your warehouse? Have you considered the impact of serialization across your entire organization? Do you have the ability to leverage serialized data to provide operational efficiency, reduce risks, and be compliant? If not, the solution is a warehouse execution system.
The serial-aware warehouse execution system will allow your distribution center to experience a host of additional operational benefits, including the ability to:
• Track serialization data as well as business relevant context data on every unit.
• Boost order accuracy.
• Improve workload balancing and planning.
• Analyze every facet of order fulfillment to speed processing and improve customer service.
• Improve returns