Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Industry Challenges and Aware Solutions
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Challenge
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Visibility of Information – All stakeholders must have visibility to accurate real-time information for the entire supply chain operations to work efficiently and effectively
Solution
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AWARE SCM modules capture all SCM related activities right from PO, receipting, stocking, warehouse management, expiry management, re-order level management, picking, delivery, invoicing, proof of delivery etc. The BI/Analytics provides all the information on a real time basis to the management and internal users to assist them in their operations and take quick informed decisions. The TPM module allows both clients and customers to have real-time access to the status of their shipment and deliveries. SMS communication are sent out by the system to the customers informing them in advance of the ETA of their deliveries. This ensures that all the stakeholders have access to accurate real-time information required for them to work efficiently and effectively
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Key benefits
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Improves the decision-making ability of the management. Enhances the level of customer satisfaction and improves the order fulfillment efficiency
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Challenge
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Accurate and timely deliveries – Right product, right quantity, right quality and timely deliveries is a major challenge in Supply Chain Management
Solution
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AWARE WMS solution maintains all the information relating to characteristics of the SKUS and inventory (CBM, expiry dates, alternative products, re-order levels, temperature requirement etc.). It also maintains characteristics of the Warehouse, location and sites (cold storage, quarantine facility, dry storage, picking area etc.). Various picking logic can be defined in the system (First In First Out, First Expiry First Out etc.). The system automatically suggests the items to be picked and the exact location from where they should be picked. Consolidated picking is also possible that reduces the workforce time spent on picking items.
Key benefits
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Improves customer satisfaction, lesser returns, timely invoicing and reduced invoice to cash cycle improves the overall profitability.
Challenge
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Truck utilization – Many a times the truck capacity is not fully utilized resulting in increased cost of rental or CAPEX
Solution
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The Transportation module keeps track of the truck/vehicle configurations (chilled, with trailer, CBM etc.). The dashboards provide a clear picture of the truck utilization and also suggests the trucks based on the product and truck configurations. There are also checks in the system to ensure that trucks that do not meet a specific criterion, (like space utilized or revenue per truck), are not released for movement out of the premises.
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Key benefits
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This ensures that the overall cost of rental/CAPEX is controlled resulting in improved ROI on the investment in the asset.
Challenge
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Complex billing requirement - 3PL companies often work for multiple clients simultaneously and the billing is extremely complex. Within one warehouse, a 3PL is responsible for many different types of products/SKUs, each having their own handling, storage, inspection and fulfilment requirements. Activities and related costs need to be tracked at a granular level for each individual customer and the billing needs to be in compliance with individual customer agreements.
Solution
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The AWARE billing module in extremely versatile and can cater to all combinations of billing based on various parameters. Activities and sub activities can be defined in the system. Information is tracked and monitored at the lowest level. The entire billing process is automated and the billing configuration is based on the various parameters set in the system as per individual customer agreements. This enables the billing module to meet all the billing requirements of the different customers.
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Key benefits
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Enhances capability to increase customer base. By automating the entire billing process, manual errors are reduced substantially thus improving credibility and reducing the invoice to cash cycle and greatly improves cash flow and profitability
Challenge
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Measuring and tracking labour performance – There are various activities performed within a warehouse like receiving, picking, packing, put away, perform physical inventory checks etc. To manual track the amount of time taken to perform each activity or task for each labour is highly time consuming and prone to errors. However, this information is crucial as finally it all adds up to the total warehouse operations time and cost.
Solution
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The AWARE labour management module captures information of each activity/task performed by each labour. Standards can be set in the system and the AWARE Analytics can be used to get insights into the total time taken for each activity or a combination of activities involved in a specific process, thus enabling management to keep track of the cost build-up. The AWARE labour management module also helps to dynamically allocate and reallocate labour to the various activities depending upon the real-time requirements on the ground.
Key benefits
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Better utilization of manpower resources. By analysing the standard versus the actual it is possible for the management to identify issues relating to specific activities and take corrective actions (like streamlining the process etc.) thus reducing the overall warehouse operations time, increasing efficiency, improving delivery times and reducing the overall cost of warehouse operations.
Challenge
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Measuring Warehouse performance – Various warehouse KPIs and parameters need to be tracked to measure the overall performance of a warehouse. This includes measuring order picking accuracy, average warehouse capacity utilization, peak warehouse capacity utilized, carrying cost of inventory, stock outs, on-time deliveries, returns, inventory count accuracy, billing accuracy, etc. Not having this information on a real-time basis can severely impact the ROI.
Solution
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With AWARE SCM suite of modules, all activities within a warehouse (right from receiving to final billing) are captured at a granular level. The BI/Analytics provides prebuilt, easy-to-understand dashboards with all the key KPIs and other parameters required for measuring the warehouse performance. The management can easily analyse the information, identify areas that need improvement and take corrective actions. Variance analysis against set standards provide management with invaluable insights into the overall performance of warehouse.
Key benefits
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Better utilization of the warehouse space, improved on-time deliveries, lower returns, increased billing accuracy, lower carrying cost of inventories – All these factors help to improve the ROI and overall profitability.
Challenge
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Out of stock - Stock Outs not only cause frustration for the customers, it can also result in potential damage to the retailer's brand. There are various reasons like disparity in item count, damages, shrinkages, inaccurate reporting, inaccurate information about the status of inventory in the supply chain. All this gets amplified when there are no systems in place.
Solution
Aware SCM modules keep track of inventory through its entire life cycle. Every stage and every event is captured in the system. With ‘Aware’, users can perform perpetual or periodic cycle count. There are also various parameters based on which cycle counting can be done like site wise, location wise, product-group wise, product-category wise etc. This gives tremendous flexibility to manage inventory. Expiry management and re-order level management further ensure that required stock levels are always maintained. Scanning and other RFIDs increases the credibility of information by reducing human error.
Key benefits
Management will have access to accurate and real-time status of inventory. Pre-defined reports, BI and Analytics provide insights into product performance. Management can quickly identify popular products, period of high/low sales etc. and accordingly determine re-order and stock levels. Maintaining the right level of inventory will reduce stockout scenarios, help enhance revenue, increase customer reach and improve brand image.
Challenge
Managing complex delivery schedules - Customers provide specific time slots during which the products need to be delivered to them. It becomes extremely difficult to manage when there are multiple customers, multiple time slots and multiple products.
Solution
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Analytics for fast moving items and auto replenishments enable faster accurate picking. The efficiency of picking is further enhanced by consolidating the picking based on schedules or routes. The route planning module helps the operations for faster loading minimizing the delivery time, thereby increasing the efficiency of delivery cycles.
Key benefits
Managing complex delivery schedules helps to reduce ‘loss of sales’, improve revenue and profitability. It also enhances credibility and customer satisfaction.