AbakusWMS Warehouse Management System
AbakusWMS is the first all-in-voice WMS in the market. All tasks can be executed by voice control, providing a hands-free-eyes-free work environment from inbound to outbound. This provides an additional 15-35% productivity boost compared to traditional warehouse management systems with handheld driven processes. All AbakusWMS processes can be executed with a variety of handhelds, tablets and forklift computers, supported with internal or external scanners and additional information screen. With AbakusWMS the most suitable devices can be used based on the process requirements.
The introduction of the AbakusWMS inventory management system has streamlined and optimized Turku Free Zone Company (TVV)’s inventory management. Turku Free Zone Company (TVV)’s warehouses no longer collect with pen and paper, but all functions and processes related to warehousing, product management and inventory have been digitized.
Stefan Lindström, CEO, Turku Free Warehouse
Warehouse optimization
AbakusWMS optimizes product placement and order grouping in real time to maximize warehousing productivity.
Powerful Performance
Processes from inbound to outbound can be configuredeasily to meet varying business needs from distribution centers to material warehouses of production plants.
Productivity and shipping accuracyivity & Shipping Accuracy
Easy-to-use mobility and voice control enables productivity improvements from 15%-35% with 100% shipping.
Process quality & efficiency
The solution focuses on work process quality and effectiveness, with significantly reduced labor costs.
Time efficiency
Enables over 50% reduction of the pass-through time in reception, reducing requirement of extra inventory
Agile all-in-voice warehouse processes
Warehouse processes from inbound to outbound can be performed with voice control or/and using tablets or handheld devices.
Abakus ecosystem
The Abakus solution enhances the warehousing ecosystem with software, hardware and services. The core of the solution is AbakusWMS warehouse management system, optimizing warehouse product placement strategies and work processes. It controls other elements of the Abakus ecosystem, such as voice terminals, handheld devices, tablets, barcode scanners and printers.
The solution is available either as an on-premise installation or as a cloud deployment, both fully supported and maintained by Optiscan’s professional services.
AbakusWMS Solution provides transparency and visibility on the warehouse-floor processes eliminating errors and resource consuming processes. It easily resides on top of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) and controls all aspects of performing a work task from the initial business transaction to the final reporting and analysis.
Receiving
At the receiving stage, in order to ensure fast and error-free entry of information, items are checked against the purchase order(s). Quantity discrepancies are reported back to the host system using voice technology or barcode scanning. The goods receive stage supports various process options, such as batch number and serial number handling, building put-away containers and more. AbakusWMS enables over 50% reduction of the pass-through time in reception. This makes products available faster for sales and reduces related labor costs and requirement of extra inventory.
Put away
Put-away is the process of transferring a unit of goods from the receiving area to a specific warehouse location. AbakusWMS solution manages the storage locations of products, by using ABC-analysis and product specific picking strategies. In addition, AbakusWMS can handle replenishment of a pick location automatically. In order to use the automatic replenishment, the products and the corresponding locations must have the dimensional data in use or target replenishment quantity parameter set. If location and product dimensional data is available, then dimensions are used to calculate a replenishment quantity that will fit in the location.
Picking
Picking is optimized by splitting orders to warehouse area specific sub-tasks and by creating multi-order pick tasks, batch tasks. This optimization is done automatically in real-time, based on editable rules. During the picking additional information, such as batch and serial numbers can be also collected. This way, Abakus ensures delivery tracing and real-time progress tracking.
Typically, voice is the most productive technology for full time piece picking operations, since it leaves the pickers with both hands free for moving goods. Voice option provides exceptional accuracy levels based on the use of location check digits. Usage of handheld devices is an excellent alternative in cases where the picking process involves constant scanning of barcodes (such as verifying serial numbers) or if the operators must frequently be able to switch between picking and other warehouse operations during the work shift.
Auto-grouper and picking area split features
AbakusWMS auto-grouper feature can be used to automatically optimize working productivity. When orders are received, AbakusWMS analyses the order content and makes many optimization decisions automatically. It sets the order priority, assigns it into the correct work queue and groups with other orders to multi-order pick tasks in an optimized way. Optimization logic can be configured directly from the user interface, making AbakusWMS very powerful in meeting changing business needs. Automated handling of area picking and multi-order grouping can provide 20-30% improvement in picking productivity, without any management overhead.
Replenishment
Replenishment of a pick location in AbakusWMS can be made automatically, based on different product and location attributes or by a manual replenishment request, which a warehouse operator can create when a picking task is active.
Transfer
Transferring goods from one warehouse location to another can be done controlled by a warehouse transfer task. Using the warehouse transfer task keeps the system’s location and quantity information
updated all the time, which makes operating the whole warehouse smooth and accurate.
Cycle counting inventory
Cycle counting is the process of auditing stock balances in the system to match the actual balances in the warehouse. AbakusWMS provides several options for cycle counting inventory: managed cycle counting using a pre-created cycle counting task (stock list); spontaneous cycle counting when the operator performs an ad-hoc counting procedure for a single location; or balance query operation to enhance the warehouse operators’ daily operation. The system can be configured to require re-counting or recording additional data such as serial or batch numbers as further security for the activity.
Key benefits
AbakusWMS optimizes warehousing by providing location management, static and dynamic put-away strategies, ABC analysis, automated multi-order picking, automated work queue management, task priorization and much more out-of-the-box. It is the best match for implementing modern warehousing on top of a standard ERP system. As all warehousing management and optimization is handled by AbakusWMS, it also expands the life cycle of the ERP to meet the evolving demands of tomorrow’s logistics.
| Business need | ERP in warehousing | AbakusWMS |
|---|---|---|
| Labor costs represent 50% of total costs in warehousing. The biggest potential in cost reduction is to improve human work productivity. | Goods receiving is done by registering each purchase order via computer or handheld device directly into ERP. No workflow optimization, no human work productivity gains. | AbakusWMS is the only all-in-voice WMS in the market. In addition to handhelds, tablets and forklift computers all tasks can be executed with pure voice recognition. The concept supports hands-free-eyes-free operations, providing maximized productivity. |
| Dynamic product placement is required to maximize picking productivity and to optimize warehouse space utilization. | Product placement is based on static pick/reserve locations. Unnecessary product transfers are needed when business requirements change. | AbakusWMS supports both static and dynamic product placement. The desired strategy can be set per product, giving flexibility to meet varying business needs. AbakusWMS ABC-analysis is based on the quantity of pick events. It therefore uses the most accurate data available to optimize product placements and picking strategies. |
| Optimized task grouping and allocation is the biggest single source for productivity improvements. Moving operators to release bottleneck areas should be easy and flexible. | Orders are allocated to operators manually. Lack of task management results in poor human work productivity and high personnel costs. | AbakusWMS has a powerful rule-based auto-grouper that can be configured directly from the management view; meeting varying business needs is flexible and fast. AbakusWMS splits orders to area specific sub tasks, allocates them into desired work queues and combines orders to optimal multi-order tasks – all automatically. |
| Modern warehousing is a data driven service business; delivery tracking, lot tracing and adding value via customer specific services bring new competitive edge against traditional box moving business. | Necessary base data such as LOT numbers and serial numbers are collected manually, creating significant labor overhead Tracing locations for LOT numbers, serial numbers and products that are pre-allocated to orders is not supported. | AbakusWMS support FIFO/FEFO, LOT and serial number handling out-of-the-box. AbakusWMS provides market leading productivity improvement to standard warehouse processes. It is designed to upgrade warehousing from box moving into modern service business. |
| Managing and correcting warehouse stock balances is a mandatory routine. Cycle counting is a time and resource consuming process. | Yearly cycle counting procedure of the whole warehouse should be executed on a specified day. Planned cycle counting process causes significant personnel costs and delivery stoppages. | AbakusWMS provides several options for cycle counting: managed cycle counting using a pre-created cycle counting task (stock list); spontaneous cycle counting when the operator performs an ad-hoc counting procedure for a single location; or balance query operation to enhance the warehouse operators’ daily operation. Possibility to do cycle counting in a warehouse location when processing orders reduces the need to organize expensive planned cycle counting events. |
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