Modern warehouse management systems

“When I started in the cold storage business, my warehouse management system was called Dozy Wellington. He drove an old TCM reach truck and block stacked  cages or converters inside the freezer rooms. Dozy was an operator. He wasn’t  above secreting the odd lamb joint in the engine compartment for dumping in the convenient bin outside the loading bay on one of many frequent warm up smoke breaks. The joint was collected later in an overly large brief case doubling as a strong box for his Stokvel’s takings. But Dozy had the mind of an elephant. He could remember where a particular pallet had been placed weeks before,  important when there was a rushed container to load. Thankfully he didn’t get sick, but his annual holidays to a farm outside Cala was when things went wrong. The resulting fallout of “lost pallets” led to our first custom written WMS requiring a scooter driver to round up floppy discs from each cold store daily for consolidation in our office. This early example of a “real time” stock system, amongst other advantages, allowed old stock to be identified, not something the marketing department enjoyed when faced with an MD who chucked ashtrays around. Modern warehouse management systems grew out of such early bunglings and now, with mobile racking and heated cabs, stock problems are generally a thing of the past. One such is the Macro 2000.” -James Cunningham Macro 2000 Cold Store Management software is a popular WMS software system among independent cold stores in South Africa. The system takes care of both third party and in-house cold stores. When a pallet is received, a unique bar coded pallet ticket is assigned to the pallet by Macro 2000 which includes the location in the cold store for easy put away by the fork lift driver. This pallet number is used for pallet relocations (important for mobile racking) so that the system stays updated. The pallet number is also used for the reservation or picking processes. This allows for easy dispatch as the picking slip gives the fork lift driver the location and the pallet number to pick. This is confirmed by the dispatch staff before loading the truck or container. All this ensures that the correct pallet is always dispatched, and your stock on hand is correct. Macro 2000 handles Bond Stores. For track and trace recall, there is full expiry date and production tracking down to pallet level throughout the system. Bar code scanning is available and especially useful when confirming the pallet that is issued is the correct pallet. In a third party environment, storage charges are automatically calculated by week or part thereof. Any additional charges are added to the document at receipt or issue. Come month end invoices are run by simply entering the invoice period end date as the system has been updated real time. Forte Warehouse Solutions (FWS) serves as a bridge consultancy between industry expectations and software offerings within the warehouse industry. Each of the FWS project leaders has their roots in warehousing and approaches projects from an industry perspective, with the aim of utilizing the software. Since 01 March 2018 Macro 2000 has engaged Forte Warehouse Solutions as their business partner for implementation, training and support. Anthea van Breemen of Macro 2000 has joined Forte Warehouse Solutions as a Director. Download the Forte Warehouse Solutions Brochure here Anthea van Breemen anthea@forteconsulting.co.za www.forteconsulting.co.za   Designing a new cold store? Barpro can help – Contact us [gravityform id=”10″ title=”true” description=”true”] Read more: How to choose the right storage system Read more: Can mobile racking work in FMCG stores? Read more: What’s so different about cold store floors?