What is the warehouse management process? How effective is the warehouse management process? Read the following article to learn 7 steps in a standard and simple ISO warehouse management process for retail stores!
Standard warehouse management process with 7 steps for retail stores
1. What is the warehouse management process?
Following 15 effective ways of stock management in retail will help businesses control and manage warehouse operations from the time goods or materials enter the warehouse to the time they are shipped out.
The basic warehouse management process will include 7 steps: warehousing, warehousing, picking, packing - shipping, return, inspection and audit report.
Optimizing these 7 steps of warehouse management will help you save costs and optimize the storage space of your warehouse.
2. Why is there a warehouse management process?
When you have a standard warehouse management process, you will optimize the time and cost for inventory management and order processing.
Quickly grasp the inventory quantity of each item when there is a fluctuation in import and export.
Maximize the storage space of the warehouse, reduce loss and damage during the storage of goods.
Optimizing time to pick up and pack goods to help process orders quickly and increase sales efficiency
Reduce return rates by managing causes of returns to address the root issue.
Correct warehouse management process, warehouse reports, revenue reports, profit and loss statements will also be calculated correctly.
Standard warehouse management process with 7 steps for retail stores
3. Standard warehouse management process for retail stores
As mentioned above, the warehouse management process will include 7 steps from warehousing, warehousing to picking, packing, returning, checking and reporting. Below we will go through each step of the ISO warehouse management process and how to optimize these steps to help you manage your inventory effectively.
Step 1: Enter the inventory
Warehouse entry is the first step in the warehouse management process and is also the most important step for accurate inventory management.
To properly implement the warehousing process, you need to check that you receive the right product, in the right quantity, and at the right time.
If not strictly followed, it may lead to incorrect inventory, affecting the next step.
Careful and careful warehousing will also help you filter out damaged products, avoiding loss and damage to the store when selling later.
To optimize the warehousing step, when contacting the supplier, you can make a number of packaging requirements such as:
Dimensions, maximum weight of 1 box
Number of products in 1 box
Labeling location and required information on the label
In case the supplier does not respond to your request, they need to send you all the above information and delivery time before you import the goods. From there, you can quickly cover as well as arrange human resources to receive goods at the right time.
When receiving the goods, the delivery person needs to have the delivery note of the supplier which fully lists the types of products and the quantity of each item, the delivery time as well as the confirmation of the warehouse keeper on the supplier side. level.
The person receiving the goods will check the seal of each box and at the same time count the quantity of goods and then load and unload. Finally, you confirm the quantity received, the condition of the goods (product code, batch number, serial number, ... if necessary) on the slip and return to the supplier 1 copy.
Standard warehouse management process with 7 steps for retail stores
Step 2: Store
After stocking goods from a supplier, the next step in the inventory management process is warehousing. After receiving the goods, you need to arrange the goods in the warehouse so that they are scientific and reasonable.
This not only helps you organize your warehouse faster, maximize warehouse space, but also easily find and pick up items when selling.
Warehousing is an easily overlooked step in the warehouse management process, but it is a step that helps increase the efficiency of warehouse management.
When loading and unloading goods on the shelves in the warehouse, you should put the same product on the same shelf to save time searching as well as limit confusion when picking up goods.
If there is not much space, each row in a shelf can be a different product.
To learn more about how to arrange goods in the warehouse, refer to this article 5 ways to arrange this warehouse to reduce the time of picking up by 50% !
Standard warehouse management process with 7 steps for retail stores
Step 3: Pick up goods
Picking is the act of collecting stock in order to fulfill a customer's order. This is the most expensive step in the warehouse management process, accounting for about 55% of total warehouse operating costs.
Therefore, when optimizing this process, you will significantly reduce costs while increasing the efficiency of warehouse management, limiting confusion of goods, helping to increase customer experience.
If the storage step in the warehouse management process above is done well, picking up goods is not difficult at all.
Currently, it can be divided into 2 ways to pick up goods, which is to pick up by order and to pick up in clusters.
Pick up by order: When there is an order, the salesperson will print the order and hand it to the warehouse staff to pick up the products included in the order. This way of picking up goods will be suitable for small business shops, with few orders during the day.
Cluster picking: Salespeople will group multiple orders together, then output a list of items with quantities. Warehouse staff will pick up goods according to the number of those products, after completing, divide the orders. This picking method will be suitable for shops with many orders so that you can complete many orders at the same time.
If you use simple warehouse management software Sapo POS, the feature of note-taking will effectively support you in the warehouse management process.
For example, product A, when arranging into the warehouse, you only need to save the position in the warehouse of that product, for example "Shelf B, row 3" or simply "Storage corner next to the door", … Then when picking up goods, you just need to Print the packing instructions of the orders to be completed to have the location of each product right away to help you pick up the goods quickly.
Printed packing instructions with the storage point of each product on Sapo POS.
Step 4: Pack and ship
Packing is the next step in the inventory management process that helps you to gather products in each order after picking up and preparing to ship to customers. This should be handled carefully, accurately, to limit errors and mistakes that can easily lead to refunds.
Packaging regulations of each store may be different, but should meet 2 important purposes:
Ensure safety, minimize damage to goods during transportation
Optimizing the volume of the package to minimize delivery costs
After completing the packing, you will hand it over to the shipping unit, at which time the goods will be recorded as shipped and deducted from the inventory.
Step 5: Complete the goods
Of course, no seller wants to have this step, but the inevitable fact is that there is still a certain percentage of returned orders.
Returning goods is a rather complicated process, but there are a few principles of warehouse management when returning goods that you need to follow:
Returning customers should follow the return policy and clearly state the cause, and these reasons should also be carefully documented so that appropriate adjustments can be made to reduce return rates.
There are regulations for returned goods for example: re-entering the warehouse, repairing, recycling, destroying or returning to the manufacturer, etc.
The sales and profits of the returned item also need to be deducted accordingly.
Standard warehouse management process with 7 steps for retail stores
Step 6: Earn goods
Searching for goods is an activity that needs to be done regularly, not just once a year or only when a problem is discovered, the warehouse is lost.
You just need to make sure the warehouse is always neatly arranged and have a reasonable inventory process, the inventory will take place smoothly and quickly.
With the support of a warehouse management software, the inventory of goods will become much simpler. With only 1 barcode scanner, you scan the barcode on each product to count the actual quantity in stock.
After completing the inventory, you can balance the inventory so that the inventory on the software is updated according to the actual number of counts.
Step 7: Statistics report
Warehouse statistics and reports will give you an overview of the warehouse management process.
Here are a few types of warehouse reports that you need to have so that you can evaluate the effectiveness of warehouse management as well as come up with a timely and appropriate import and discharge plan.
Warehouse book: Manage export, import and inventory information
Warehouse report: Track inventory value of stores and branches (if any)
Over/under-quota report: View the items in stock that are above or below the norm to have an appropriate discharge/import plan.
Suggestions for importing: Goods selling well or below the norm.
Goods inspection report: Manage the quantity of goods missing, damaged, reasons for loss.
Sapo software with full warehouse reports helps you quickly grasp the stock situation.
To manage the quantity of import - export - inventory you can manage with books, excel, but with a retail store, a warehouse management software will be an indispensable assistant to help you automate. warehouse management process.
Warehouse management software Sapo POS with full features of goods entry, warehousing notes, packing instructions, returns, inspection, ... and a powerful reporting system to help you quickly cover the situation warehouse as well as check the efficiency of warehouse management without having to take notes, calculate or headache with excel functions anymore.
If you are wondering about a certain feature or want to experience it directly, do not hesitate to register right here to receive a free 7-day trial of Sapo POS warehouse management software. You will be free to explore and comfortably enjoy the benefits that the software brings!
Free experience of sales management software Sapo POS