The standard SAP Business One solution provides a solid warehouse platform for companies with reasonably straight forward warehouse requirements. For more information on this please see the Warehouse Management section under SAP Business One.

For companies with more advanced warehouse management requirements Radio Beacon is a fully integrated software application that tracks the flow of goods through a distribution centre and automates the in-warehouse segment of the SAP Business One order-fulfilment process.

By integrating PC, barcode, radio frequency (RF) and RFID technologies, Radio Beacon maintains up-to-the-minute warehouse inventory records, and reports on the real-time status of orders, products, and processes, to any member of the organization with access to SAP Business One or a Web browser.

SAP Business One and Radio Beacon provide the inventory-control component of a fully automated warehouse management system (WMS), which includes order-entry, accounting, customer relationship, and supply chain management functionality. Radio Beacon also acts as the intermediary between the financial system and a third-party shipping system that manages shipping processes and interactions with external logistics partners, such as couriers, postal systems, trucking providers, or other carriers.

Using RF handheld devices equipped with barcode or RFID scanners, warehouse staff record each movement of stock through the warehouse, from the moment the products arrive on the receiving dock from a supplier, to the moment they leave the shipping dock to travel to their final customer destination.

Radio Beacon can also integrate with various types of hardware used in the warehouse to assist in materials handling, such as scales, cubing machines, keyboard scanners, barcode label printers, laser printers, touch screens, conveyor belts, carousels, and so on.

Among the many Radio Beacon features you may use to automate your warehouse activities, here is a brief list of some of the major, day-to-day tasks that Radio Beacon helps you perform more efficiently:

• Locate specific products in the warehouse at any time
• Select orders to process by priority
• Manage workloads and staff assignments
• Receive and pick products for several orders at the same time
• Share receiving and picking duties for a single order among several staff members
• Rotate stock at exactly the right time
• Print labels and other documents automatically
• Process shipments automatically
• Gather historical and statistical data with ease
• and much more...

Process Description

Receiving

Real-time updates when receiving product into inventory against purchase orders. Most warehouses laboriously match each line on a purchase order to the corresponding receipt, then send a paper note to accounting to update the system.

Put-away into Inventory

After a product has been received into the warehouse, it needs to be put away. Locations can be recorded for later retrieval. Many companies locate products as close as possible to their pick locations to minimize "hunting" when pickers come to empty locations. This is no longer necessary with Radio Beacon.

Hard Order Allocation

Hard allocation reduces the available inventory in specific bin locations based on selected orders for picking.

Replenish Pick Locations

Pickers deplete pick locations periodically. When this happens, the pick locations need to be refilled. Radio Beacon generates automatic replenishment requests based on allocated orders.

Kitting

Kitting is the process of building a finished product from components. Most companies print work orders to specify which product needs to be gathered ad taken to a work area. After work orders are completed, paperwork is sent to accounting for adjustment.

Decide which orders to pick (order waving)

Deciding which orders to pick first is typically performed by the warehouse manager after sales decides which orders should be fulfilled. Most of the time, orders are selected FIFO, unless there are rush orders that need to be filled quickly. Pick tickets are typically sorted into stacks and given to pickers for order fulfilment.

Order Picking

Most companies use pick tickets to guide pickers on their routes to fill orders. Items and quantities are usually sorted by bin locations. After orders are picked, they are typically sent to packing to be double checked. Radio Beacon creates an optimized pick path and removes the need for checking by validating product, bin and carton as each line of the pick is processed.

Shipping

After orders are packed into boxes, they are taken to a shipping station. Many companies line up multiple carrier computers and leave it up to the shipper to select best method. When the carrier and method is selected, the shipping label is printed. At the end of the day, a shipping manifest is prepared for the carriers.

Cycle Counting and Inventory

Many companies shut down several times a year or ask the entire staff to spend the weekend in the warehouse counting products. Paper count tickets are prepared and tallied. After the counts are completed, the accounting system is updated with the results. With Radio Beacon a perpetual inventory is maintained and only random spot checks are necessary.

Multi-Bin

Keeping multiple bin locations per product with quantities per location takes discipline. Every time a product is moved, it needs to be recorded.

In addition to SAP Business One, NAMMIS have a number of other solutions that may be of interest to our current and future clients. Please go to our Solutions section for more information on our other integrated products.

Please do contact us to discuss your needs in more detail – we’re sure we can help!