Frequently asked questions relating to the warehouse and how SKUSavvy tackles specific tasks within the warehouse.
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software system that keeps track of everything happening across your warehouse network. Everything from the placement of product within bins around your warehouse to product details, vendors, customers, orders and picking, packing, fulfillment, and shipping is held within a warehouse management system.
For each company, the answer will be slightly different. However, there are some key indicators that may help determine when you will want to switch from your eCommerce/paper/shipping software into a fully-fledged WMS. Here are a few key indicators to look for:
Daily shipping volume exceeds 350 orders per day
The amount of time it takes to print pick lists, pick items, and get orders shipped is longer than the day allows
You are growing too fast to train people on your manual processes, and need software to standardize the training and workload
The manual tasks of field sales and order management cause redundant workloads across multiple departments
Shipping time for orders goes beyond three to four days
Replenishment of pick bins prevents the order picking flow
Unable to cross-dock items from one warehouse to another before the supply is depleted in the requesting warehouse
SKUSavvy is a full-fledged warehouse management system for small and medium-sized enterprises. It is designed to help companies transition from simpler systems and paper-based systems that may be holding them back. We handle the needs of companies who are growing rapidly or simply realize the need for a more technically capable system. That said, here are the core capabilities we can help with:
Role based task assignment and permissions for users throughout the software
Product management to handle details and multiple units of measurement
Automated purchase order creation and sending to vendors
Automated PO approval process from vendors with real-time tracking
Allow vendors to pay, and get paid from customers through an interactive portal
Lead-time prediction using a rolling average between the time a PO was placed, and when it was received
Product check-in
Automated reporting for differences in the PO received vs. ordered quantities
Product allocation to bin locations throughout the warehouse based on a similar product within other bins
Visual warehouse layout with an interactive map of every position within your warehouse
Automated replenishment between pick bins and different units of measurement
Cross-docking between multiple warehouses initiated internally between teams
Field sales capability to view pricing and availability of product via any mobile device for mobile sales fleets
Order management to bring down orders from eCommerce sites and other marketplaces
Batching of orders for picking in the most efficient manner around the warehouse
Order packaging according to batches of similar products
Automated shipping address validation
Automated shipping rate shopping and purchase
Print multiple shipping labels at once to fulfill multiple orders at once
Box sizing suggestions to effectively guide employees toward the right materials to package with
Returns management with different return address capability
Automated tracking updates for your customers
Bulk upload products: this process should be done within Shopify currently since SKUSavvy does not support bulk uploads directly. These products will come into SKUSavvy in moments
Bulk upload inventory: since SKUSavvy relies on a visual warehouse management style each item coming into the warehouse should be added manually to a bin location. Bin locations can be as broad or specific as needed. However, we do support inventory uploads with a silver support plan. You can also upload stock into Shopify, resync SKUSavvy to pull inventory in from Shopify, then use the bulk allocation tool to continuously scan bin/products into your SKUSavvy account.
Product movement can be made directly from one bin to another bin with a bin-to-bin transfer. You can also modify the physical location of the bin at any time on the warehouse layout editor. SKUSavvy also includes bulk tools to create many bins at one time or duplicate one shelf level to another.
New bins can be created within the layout at any time to turn one space into multiple for additional lot locations within the same bay for instance.
Within SKUSavvy you can utilize the step counting rules on a specific product variant to require specific number of units to be ordered while on the purchase order creation. SKUSavvy includes a kitting module, which will enable you to convert from say a case of 12 units to 12 single units.
Yes you can use the custom label creator to make your own custom receiving barcodes which can be printed after the transfer is marked delivered and items have been counted.
Barcodes are not required for you to use SKUSavvy, however we certainly encourage their usage. You should have all products barcoded in an ideal world. SKUSavvy can generate barcodes that are recognized system-wide if you don't already have barcodes and you can assign barcodes to products just by scanning them if they are unknown.
Within SKUSavvy, pick sheets are actually digital pick lists that show the product, quantity to pick, and locations within the warehouse. Currently, there is no way to print out a pick list since the data within SKUSavvy is real-time which keeps everything accurate across teams.
If the order has not yet been shipped and an edit is made, this will reflect in SKUSavvy automatically and shown to pickers/packers to unpick the product. If the order has already been shipped, then you should plan to initiate the return on Shopify, which can be directly reassigned to the location in Shopify and this will reflect back into SKUSavvy. Optionally you could choose to not restock in Shopify and just bring the inventory back in through an inventory adjustment.
Yes, by default orders are routed to the appropriate warehouse based on Shopify routing rules which depends on available inventory and the location of the delivery. You can split fulfill the order across different locations with different shipments, or cross-dock the inventory from one location to another to complete the fulfillment as one using automated replenishment.
Yes, items can have multiple bin locations within one warehouse. The only exception is that perishable items of different lots/expiration dates can be required to be stored in different bin locations for proper traceability. The same is true for those items having a serial number, which cannot be allocated to different bin locations.