Mastering NetSuite Warehouse Management: A Comprehensive Guide
What is Warehouse Inventory Management?
Warehouse inventory management is a systematic process that businesses adopt to ensure organization, tracking, and handling of goods. NetSuite Warehouse Inventory Management Solution is one such product that offers warehouse and goods handling features of numerous industries.
These goods can be anything:
- Raw material
- Finished products
- Parts of an assembly
As there are different types of goods, warehouse inventory management is also complex, requiring an efficient warehouse management application.
Speaking more of warehouse inventory management, it deals with both: warehouses as well as distribution centers’ goods, i.e., local stores. Besides that, there are products in transit. They may or may not be included in the warehouse inventory management depending upon the business’s perspective and way of management.
So, how would you ensure effective warehouse inventory management?
- Order picking and packing are accurate
- Ability to conduct demand forecasts
- Handling multiple processes, such as receiving goods and managing orders with ease
Now that you know about the warehouse management system, let’s check how it differs from the inventory management system.
NetSuite offers tools for both warehouse management and inventory management. Knowing the difference will help you understand better whether you need warehouse management software or a complete inventory management tool.
Warehouse Management System vs. Inventory Management System
A warehouse management system focuses more on shipping and order fulfillment processes, i.e., mainly the outbound processes. On the other hand, inventory management software is inclined towards inbound processes such as receiving and putaway.
Many times, warehouse management systems and inventory management system have features that overlap. However, they are different when it comes to emphasis. The WMS optimizes the entire warehouse operations, and the IMS optimizes the handling of physical goods.
If we go in-depth, there are several other differences, which are as follows:
Integration
The warehouse management system is designed in such a way that it can be integrated with other ERP systems for optimizing sales, inventory, and finance. It is mainly used as a standalone application by small businesses but also integrates with other ERP apps.
Suitable Operations
The warehouse management system is an exclusive application that comes with additional features for complicated warehouse operations. The inventory management system works well for overall inventory management requirements but won’t work for complex warehouse requirements.
Managing Workflows
WMS can manage workflows to communicate with multiple departments, such as sales, revenue, etc., and implement automation. However, IMS can only manage simpler processes.
Overall, you can say that the warehouse management system efficiently handles its spaces, such as bins, shelves, etc. On the other hand, the inventory management system works to manage every single unit placed in those spaces.
What are the methodologies for warehouse inventory management?
NetSuite Warehouse Management Software provides several techniques and methodologies for warehouse inventory management, where every methodology has unique benefits. Let’s check each one in detail:
Just in Time
Just in Time is helpful for manufacturing. It supports smooth production movement as the raw material or components arrive at the production site per your automation. The primary benefit of this method is it keeps the inventory at an optimum level (as much as required), saving unnecessary cost and space.
Cross-Docking
As the name suggests, cross-docking is useful for docks. Here, as soon as the product arrives, it gets shipped to the required location. Therefore, no storage is required when the shipment arrives as it directly goes to the other location.
ABC Analysis
This methodology is based on the Pareto principle, which states that 20% of your products account for 80% of your sales. According to this principle, you can categorize your products and decide things such as order frequency, placement in inventory, etc.
Two-bin Method
This method allows you to distribute your inventory items into two bins. Bin one is the work bin from where the purchase takes place. Bin two works as a back, so when bin one gets empty, you can use bin two till the reorder arrives. The primary benefit of this method is you won’t need to make a reorder unnecessarily. The reorder will be made at the right time, and the sales process will be continuous.
Fixed Order Quantity
This allows you to set a reordering threshold paired with automated monitoring. So, whenever the stock falls a certain threshold, the system automatically orders and avoids discontinuity in sales.
Fixed Period Ordering
In this method, rather than reordering when the inventory levels deplete, we can order periodically. However, the quantity won’t be the same every time. It will depend upon fluctuation in demand. One can use this method for items whose demand significantly changes with time.
Vendor Managed Inventory
This is one of the methods where, instead of you, your vendor is responsible for ensuring you have optimum inventory levels. In this case, you need to share the sales data and trends with the vendor, according to which the vendor delivers the order. It’s one of the best ways to reduce procurement costs and eliminate backup stocks.
Drop Shipping
If you don’t wish to hold an inventory of your own, this is the best method. When your customer makes a purchase, the information is delivered to the supplier, who directly ships it to your customer.
Warehouse Inventory Management Challenges
Warehouse inventory management is undoubtedly complex. It is simpler when you have fewer locations and delivery channels. However, it becomes more brutal as soon as numerous locations and delivery channels appear.
Let’s check out the list of challenges here:
- Keeping up with the fluctuating demands of buyers at different locations is also a significant challenge.
- Knowing the accurate number of inventory counts for which inventory managers use perpetual inventory systems.
- Ensure never run out of SKUs due to improper inventory level calculations.
- Optimize inventory level in such a way that it doesn’t occupy storage space unnecessarily.
What is NetSuite Warehouse Management?
NetSuite Warehouse Management System (WMS) is an application designed to enhance daily warehouse tasks. The application implements the best industry practices, techniques, and tools to make businesses’ warehouse management easier. For instance:
- Task management features
- Return authorization receipts
- RF barcode scanning
The NetSuite Warehouse management system can handle thousands of SKUs even when located at multiple locations.
Overall, NetSuite WMS helps to eliminate manual warehouse management, making the entire process more efficient.
Benefits of NetSuite Warehouse Management
- Real-time Check on Inventory: With NetSuite WMS, you can keep a real-time check on the inventory products and know the product movement in detail.
- Correct Item Placement: The products that move faster near the fulfillment area, whereas those with low sales are not prioritized.
- Guiding Labor in Performing Tasks: With NetSuite WMS, the labor will know which tasks to prioritize, whether picking, storing, or shipping them.
- Improved Customer Satisfaction: NetSuite Warehouse Management helps to deliver the products to customers quickly, eliminate mis-picks, and have accurate fulfillment.
NetSuite Warehouse Management Features
NetSuite WMS is one of the best tools for streamlining warehouse operations. The application uses best practices and data analytics techniques to bring the best for you. Let’s check out the primary features in detail.
Inbound Logistics
This feature empowers NetSuite Warehouse Management to streamline transportation, receipt, and storage coordination. From the dashboard, you can manage all aspects of your inbound inventory, such as container management, scheduling receipt dates, etc. Overall, it allows you to track end-to-end inventory from purchase to warehouse arrival.
Order Fulfillment
The order fulfillment feature ensures that the customers always receive the correct order in less time. It simplifies the order fulfillment process, which increases the overall efficiency as the time consumed for error management decreases.
Mobile Warehouse Management
One of the advantages of NetSuite Warehouse Management is its availability on mobile devices. As you can directly control the inventory processes through mobile, it becomes easier to track the processes and ensure accuracy. Also, it’s more convenient and reduces time in inventory handling.
Cycle Counting
With the NetSuite Warehouse Management System, you get the NetSuite Smart Count solution that allows a business to keep an accurate inventory count without causing hindrance to any of the locations. With the application, you can keep track of all your transactions for the counted items. Even if any purchase occurs while the counting continues, the app alerts the counter, optimizing the accuracy.
Challenges Solved by NetSuite Warehouse Management
With NetSuite Warehouse management, you can solve several issues and optimize warehouse management. Let’s have a detailed look at the challenges solved by NetSuite:
- WMS NetSuite solves the issue of improper understanding of inventory as it provides the ability to have a complete view of the inventory by checking the qualities, product statuses, movement of products, etc., through the application.
- It reduces the chance of data input errors as you can get orders through its mobile app and add the characteristics of an item.
- NetSuite WMS puts an end to inefficient use of warehouse space as it supports you in placing the products correctly and grouping them as per the optimized warehouse layout.
- It helps overcome order-picking challenges; it allows you to group similar orders and pick them together. Besides that, you can pick items for more than one order in one go.
FAQs: NetSuite Warehouse Management Explained
Optimizing the warehouse management and having a complete overview of the inventory in simpler terms to make decisions and reduce errors is the primary purpose of NetSuite Warehouse Management.
Yes, there are several third-party applications that you can integrate with NetSuite WMS to enhance its functionalities.
NetSuite WMS is a scalable product that can manage warehouses for smaller as well as larger businesses, as it can handle numerous SKUs and a variety of items.
If a business has stores at multiple locations, it can use the multi-location inventory feature. It will help you manage the inventory of numerous locations.
About Our NetSuite Warehouse Management Solution
Cloudiotech is one of the leading solution providers for NetSuite Warehouse Management. We offer services such as implementation, migration, deployment, customization, and more globally. If you want ongoing support for your NetSuite warehouse management or resources who can handle it, you are at the right place.
