The current business landscape has become more competitive than ever. You have to undo all your opponents to grow your business rapidly. Therefore, the main focus of every business owner is to optimise the efficiency of different operations to stand out from their competitors. One of the most crucial operations you can focus on to stay ahead of your opponents is order cycle times. Shortening or reducing this cycle time will help you keep your customers satisfied.
However, reducing this time can be challenging as the order cycle involves several processes from receiving orders to delivering them. The use of a warehouse management system can play a crucial role in this regard. Thinking how a tool known for managing warehouse operations can reduce order cycle times? Don’t worry! We will tell you about it. In this post, we will unveil how warehouse management reduces the order cycle times.
How a Robust WMS Reduces Order Cycle Times?
Order cycle time is the time taken by your company or organisation to fulfil the order. Implementing a robust warehouse management system can help in shortening this time in several ways. The most common ways are:
Offer Real-Time Inventory Visibility
To fulfil any order, you need to pick up the products from the warehouse. Knowing what’s available in the inventory makes it easy for you to process the order. You will know this only when you have implemented a robust warehouse management system in your organisation.
This system offers real-time inventory visibility. It keeps you informed about the availability of products and available stocks. Based on this information, you will pick only those orders that can be fulfilled promptly. As a result, the order cycle time will automatically reduce.
Optimise the Picking Process
Picking may appear as a simple task as the only thing you have to do is locate and pick the required products from the warehouse. However, it can take considerable time and effort, especially when you don’t know the exact location of the products. WMS plays an important role in this regard.
It optimises the picking process by providing information about the warehouse and where different products are present in it. As a result, you can quickly pick them from the inventory which can shorten the cycle time.
Order Prioritization
As a business owner, you have to master the art of order prioritisation. It allows you to fulfil orders promptly, satisfying all your customers. However, mastering this art is a complex task, but not when you have a robust WMS to assist you. It allows you to prioritise important orders. It will streamline the prioritisation process by listing the orders in order as they are received. As a result, the cycle time for every order will be reduced.
Reduce Manual Processes
To process and fulfil, you have to complete several tasks. Manually doing all these tasks can take a lot of time and effort. As a result, it will be hard for you to fulfil orders timely. When you use a warehouse management system, it automates several processes. All the data entry and handling tasks will be automated and completed with accuracy. When these tasks are automated, you can pay attention to order fulfilment, which will ultimately reduce the cycle times.
Integration With Other Systems
Whether you are trying to manage orders or reduce order cycle time, a single software system cannot do the whole job. Therefore, WMS integrates with several other software systems to reduce cycle time. The most significant integration is with the order management system.
This integration enhances the performance of both software by enabling seamless information sharing. When these two systems work collaboratively, the orders will be processed and shipped in a short time, reducing the order cycle times.
Continuous Improvement
It doesn’t matter what type of business you are running, there are always margins of improvements. A robust WMS allows you to improve continuously. The way you manage and process orders will also be improved. One of the various outcomes of these improvements will be reduced order cycle time.
Final Words
To sum it up, reducing order cycle times can be tricky, but not when you leverage the power of a solid WMS. It automates different tasks and integrates with an order management system to process orders at a rapid pace that helps reduce the cycle time. Try one if you haven’t done already!