5 Manual Processes to Eliminate at Your Distribution Center
Posted on: June 23, 2016 | By: Craig Thompson | Acumatica, Wholesale Distribution
For many wholesale distributors, manual business processing has become the method of choice when it comes to managing your organization. While there is something to be said for manually managing your wholesale distribution business, doing so can often times significantly limit your potential for growth.
Manually managing your inventory, analytics, scheduling, purchase orders and sales orders requires a significant amount of attention making it difficult to focus your energy where your organization needs it most. By automating these otherwise manual business processes with a specialized wholesale distribution management system, you can save your business the time and money that you need to promote growth as well as increase customer service and streamline your business processes. Both your customers and employees will thank you.
1. Inventory Management
Manually tracking inventory management makes it difficult to view the entire picture of your wholesale distribution business. It takes a significant amount of time and effort and still does not give you all of the information that you and your customers have come to expect. Through the use of a distribution ERP system like Acumatica cloud ERP, automated inventory management capabilities can allow you to manage your inventory across multiple warehouses and currencies, while giving you real-time visibility to current inventory in transit, costs, and reorder quantities. This type of system also allows for the tracking of expiration dates, negative inventory and bin location. With distribution software solutions, your customers can be certain that they are getting the standard of service they have come to expect and you can receive the information you need to make business savvy decisions to help your distribution company grow.
2. Purchase Order Management
Manual purchase order processing without a clear picture has the potential to drive overhead costs and limit your potential for growth. With an automated cloud ERP software distributors can reduce purchasing costs and ensure a stable material supply while accelerating decision making processes significantly. Automated solutions eliminate the guesswork out of purchasing efficiency because every detail is tracked and analyzed with just the single touch of a button. Access past information quickly and easily, improve purchasing efficiency with partial receipts, and gain complete USPS integration so that you can know where your shipments are located in real time, keeping both management and your customers happy.
3. Manual Analytics
Without a basic wholesale distribution software system, comfortable manual business processes can sometimes cause more headache than it’s worth. If you find that your business is constantly re entering redundant information, is unable to view and manipulate your data in a way that makes sense for the wholesale distribution industry, has complex revenue structures that are difficult to manage, or are being forced to limit sizes of documents then a more automated distribution software solution may be the right option for you. Automated cloud ERP software allows your distribution company to use real-time analytics to look ahead to predict future sales trends, identify your highest margin customers and uncover under-performing stores or product lines to thrive. Stop losing sleep over sticky notes and to do lists and get some peace of mind with the automated power of wholesale distribution software analytics.
4. Scheduling
Organization is crucial for any organization, however this is especially so for wholesale distributors. Rather than spending your valuable time constantly updating and checking your calendar for tasks that need to be completed, automate your scheduling and workflow module to take some of the work off of your plate. Many automated scheduling engines allow their users to automate routine tasks and manually review exceptions. Wholesale distributors can process documents like sales orders, bills, invoices etc. within the system to allow automation for virtually any process. Eliminate human error and reduce costs all with the certainty that your work will be done on time and up to your quality standard.
5. Sales Order Management
Through the use of automated wholesale distribution software, distributors are able to achieve much faster order fulfillment and data entry with automated sales order management. Order processing, shipping order generation, receive and fill orders, multiple warehouse transactions, predictive entry and more allow wholesale distributors to enhance the way you quote, receive and fill orders in a way that can save you time and money. Manual processing leaves room for error and takes far too many resources than needed. Through automated sales order management, wholesale distributors have the potential to grow their organization internationally through automatic currency translations and if you’re looking for the whole package, integrating your ERP for wholesale distribution with your CRM system, you can also improve customer satisfaction.
Automated inventory and warehouse management is the easiest way for distributors to have transparent insight into their entire operation. By eliminating your manual processing distributors can improve inbound and outbound operations, quality assurance, warehouse activities and inventory control. Let wholesale distribution management software like Acumatica transform how you do business. Cloud based ERP systems simplify information management to allow you to combine multiple data sources so you can build richer incites to hone your competitive edge.
Still unsure if automated wholesale distribution management systems are for you? Check out some of our previous blog posts to help you determine the ROI and minimize the costs of a new ERP system, determine if it is time for you to update your current ERP system and even the impact of integrating ERP and CRM systems together.
Ready to take the plunge? Contact Logan Consulting, your Chicago based Acumatica partners to schedule a consultation or request a demo.
