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by Esteban Cavrico

Warehouse Signs ? Guide Visitors

One of the best things about being in the manufacturing business is the fact that customers depend on you to supply the materials they need to go about their jobs and lives more easily. Whether you run a paper supply warehouse or a building supply warehouse, you need to make sure that delivery personnel and visitors are able to move about the building safely and efficiently. Perhaps you’ve always worked in warehouses and you have no trouble navigating through the aisles and shelving. This is good for you; however, your customers and visitors are likely to have a much harder time finding what they are looking for. Make the process easier by installing informative warehouse signs.

No matter which types of rules or policies you are trying to enforce at your facility, warehouse signs are an inexpensive, convenient way to make sure that everyone understands what you are looking for. Warehouses are typically areas of a lot of activity. From deliveries that can happen any time throughout the day, to the arrival of inspectors, employees and visitors that have come for a tour, you have a lot of people to direct to their required locations throughout the property.

If you’ve never really thought about which warehouse signs would help you to guide your visitors and improve the flow of traffic through and around your facility, you should know that there are a wide variety of signs available. From shipping and receiving signs that alert truck drivers to the proper place to deposit their load, to alerting customers to the proper area to park their cars so that they can pick up their merchandise, proper signage can help you to avert a lot of mishaps before they even occur. You will be able to serve your customers much better when the signs are clear.

If you are interested in operating a warehouse that is as safe as possible at all times, you should know that warehouse signs are a great way to make your message plain. You will be able to avoid customers entering restricted areas of the warehouse, as well as indicate to employees how they should be operating in certain parts of the facility. No matter whether you are looking for small discreet signs, or large obvious signs, there is something out there to help you communicate with your clients better.

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by autowitch

Selecting Warehouse Management System for Dynamics GP

WMS software licenses and barcode scanners cost might be comparable or even higher than Microsoft Dynamics GP licenses investment.  Considering that fact, you do not really want to make a wrong decision and this is why homework is required in Warehouse Management brand selection.  Let’s review typical WMS functionality, how it is mapped to Great Plains Dynamics (this is historical name of Microsoft Dynamics GP, as it is often referred by existing customers) transactions and WMS technical implementations.  Warehouse Management System depends on Barcoding technology, and Barcode scanners should be compatible with your final WMS platform, this is why you should not rush into their purchase prior to making final decision on WMS.  If you are large wholesaler or distributor, we recommend you to have dedicated project manager, who is responsible for Warehouse Management System selection activity, and who is familiar with barcoding technology (best options would be somebody who got degree in Supply Chain Manager and Logistics):

1. WMS functionality and its mapping to Dynamics GP modules and transactions.  In classical scenarios you should expect Sales Order Fulfillment, Inventory Transfer and Adjustments, and Merchandise Replenishment (often referred as restocking).  All these functions are available in native Dynamics GP, where Order Fulfillment is Order Line Manual Allocation (SOP transaction entry screen, or the same is possible in Fulfillment Order form).  Inventory adjustments (and Cycle counts) have similarly named transaction windows in Great Plains Inventory Control module.  And finally Inventory restocking is realized in Purchase Order Processing module in Purchase Receipt document.  As you can expect so far, Microsoft Dynamics GP has all the required functionality, but it is not really Barcoding enabled application (as it is rather Corporate ERP, MRP, and Accounting system).  This is why you need Warehouse Management application to enable Barcoding originated transactions to be integrated to Great Plains

2. Warehouse Management System realization technologies.  If you would like general view, there are two approaches.  First one is self-contained external WMS, which has integration modules or even connectors to major Accounting applications, such as Dynamics GP, AX, Oracle Applications, Accpac, Platinum, SAP Business One, Navision, Solomon, etc.  And the second approach is Dynamics GP WMS extensions, where Warehouse Management System works directly with Great Plains tables.  Here we should warn you that decision making on the External versus Extensions is very difficult and tough.  We have only good words to say about both WMS platforms and we would like to give you positive and negative points for each one, not being critical, but giving you highlights to decide on what is the best for you

3. External WMS – as the positive comment, here you typically expect rich functionality, very large number of installations across the USA, Canada and internationally (meaning that most of the software bugs are fixed and you are not the beta testing victim).  However there are costs to be universal – you typically have to pay for the same functionality in Warehouse Management Applications (you already paid for Dynamics GP Distribution set of modules: Sales Order Processing, Inventory Control and Purchase Order Processing).  We also heard some complains from Great Plains Warehouse oriented customers, that WMS integration is not working out of the box and requires unexpected consulting hours

4. Dynamics GP Warehouse Management System Extensions.  As positive comments, integration is not an issue (as it works directly in Great Plains DB scope), you do not have to pay twice for software licenses.  However to give you some caution, the installation base is narrower.  Here in Alba Spectrum we offer your WMS extensions module and we encourage you to call us for executive and technical presentation

5. Dynamics GP WMS and Great Plains versions.  If you have to implement Great Plains Warehouse Management System, our recommendation would be to in the current version (Dynamics GP 2010/11.0) or at least one version behind (Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0)

6. What to do if your WMS implementation failed or is currently in limbo?  First of all – it is possible scenario and you are not the first one and not the last one.  Please, relax, life is wonderful and feel free to give us a call: 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com.  Local service in Illinois, Michigan, California, Texas.  We are positioned to do remote support for Dynamics GP implementations and Warehouse Management System user training

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by wallyg

Things To Keep In Mind While Hiring An Burlington Self Storage Warehouse

If you are looking to rent an Burlington Self Storage Warehouse then it is important to do at least some amount of independent research on the topic before you sign a contract with any one storage company. This is because though many of them have good facilities and services on offer, it still helps to find one that offers you above average storage that caters specifically the kind of items you want to store. And in order to find one of these, you might need to speak with a number of friends and acquaintances who have rented storage space before, as well as visit a few Warehouses and see how self storage actually works. Before you start doing any of this, here is a handy list of the things you need to look for when selecting an Burlington Self Storage Warehouse. These would be the same irrespective of whether you are looking for an Burlington car storage space, or one that holds furniture, household items and office equipment. Size Of The Warehouse As per the number of items you want to put into the Warehouse, you might have a particular size requirement. It would be ideal to put everything into a single Burlington Self Storage Warehouse as this will help cut your cost and also allow you better control over space utilization. So instead of renting a separate Burlington car storage Warehouse and another one for furniture, it makes more economic sense to hire one large Warehouse and then divide it accordingly into the different kinds of items you need to store within it. Security Security facilities are very important for the safety of your belongings. This pertains to both the security staff as well as the equipment like cameras, motion detectors and even pass keys and limited access. Checking the policy of the Burlington Self Storage Warehouse on disaster management and emergency planning would also be useful to help you get a better understanding of how equipped the facility is to handle emergencies. Accessibility It would be best if the facility was centrally located but this is not always possible. In many cases the Warehouses that are at the most accessible facilities are very expensive. And they might not be affordable if you require a very large space. If the Warehouse is not centrally located then you might want to make sure that you can reach it easily via car or truck. In order to do this you might need to check the timings of the facility, how long it takes you to drive there and also the weather conditions throughout the year. All of these would decide whether hiring a Warehouse at a more secluded facility makes sense or not. Discounts Many Burlington storage facilities offer you discounts if you are a regular customer. You also get special deals if you hire racks, shelving and even packing material from the facility itself. While this is definitely more convenient for you, the discounts also help you cut costs. Some facilities also have deals on packing and moving services which is another thing you might want to check on. After all any way in which you can reduce your expenses without affecting the quality of the storage, should definitely be given a second look.

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