| Oracle® Retail Warehouse Management System UI User Guide Release 15.0 E66766-01 |
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| Oracle® Retail Warehouse Management System UI User Guide Release 15.0 E66766-01 |
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Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System (RWMS), part of Oracle Retail's Supply Chain Planning and Execution solution group, facilitates the coordinated movement of merchandise and information throughout the distribution process in a warehouse. Using sophisticated, yet flexible configuration and built-in best practices, it ensures the efficient utilization of resources-people, equipment, and space in your distribution process. This chapter includes the following topics:
A Warehouse Management System is a key part of the supply chain of a retail organization. The Warehouse Management System is used to control the movement of goods from Vendor through Warehouses (Distribution Centers) to Stores/Customer. Within the warehouse the goods flow through these core processes: Appointment Scheduling, Receiving (ASN, PO, Pallet Receiving, Non Specified Casepack), Transport (putaway/move), replenishment, picking, cycle counting, returns, and shipping.
Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System (RWMS) is the focal point of the Oracle Retail Enterprise, a suite of software products that manages and optimizes retail and consumer-direct (catalog, e-commerce) supply chains. RWMS streamlines the supply chain for multichannel retailers, including store, catalog, and e-commerce retailers.
The activities in a warehouse can be logically divided into three business processes:
Inbound Operations: Involves Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN), Purchase Order (PO), Appointments, Receiving, crossdocking, flowthrough, and Customer/Stores Returns Management.
Internal Operations: Involves Transport (putaway/move), Waving Store Orders, Replenishment, Picking, Cycle Counting, Task Management, Labor Management, and Inventory Management.
Outbound Operations: Involves Trailer Management, Shipping and Yard Management (both inbound and outbound).
The business process flows corresponding to these activities and supported by RWMS are:
Yard Management: The yard is the physical parking lot for all the inbound and outbound trailers outside of the warehouse. Yard Management is the process of physically and logically keeping track of these trailers and moving them as needed to either the inbound or outbound side of the operation. RWMS has the ability to log the trailer entry and exit from the yard and track its location on the yard at any time. In order to use Yard Management an RF network must be deployed in the yard.
Inbound Operations: This process involves the download of Purchase Orders and or ASN's from the host management system. Carriers call when they need an appointment to deliver goods. An Appointment is scheduled at an available receiving door and information about the inbound trailer (PO's, items, Quantity) are entered into RWMS. There are three main ways in which the received goods are transferred/moved inside a warehouse: Cross Dock, Flow Through, or putaway to storage. The Inbound process involves receiving merchandise, collection of receipts, matching of Purchase Order (PO) or ASN, reverse logistics that involves return of defected goods, and value added services like labeling and so on.
Internal Operations: Is the process of moving the goods to the appropriate picking or storage locations in the warehouse and then generating outbound waves to pick store/customer orders. The generation of a wave, results in both replenishment and pick activities at the discreet location level. Task Management (optional) can be utilized to increase the priority of tasks to increase overall efficiency of the warehouse. Labor Management (optional) can be utilized to establish Labor Standards for specific activities to compare allotted time to actual time for completion of tasks. When inventory discrepancies are discovered during replenishment or pick activities cycle counting is utilized to correct the imbalance.
Outbound Operations: Is the process of defining shipment carriers and shipment schedules to support store or channel deliveries. Outbound trailers are opened based on scheduled delivery dates and then loaded based on the waved merchandise requirements. Upon Trailer Shipment outbound ASN's are sent to both the host management system and store systems to provide them early visibility to inbound deliveries.
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Note: The processes within the warehouse are enabled and supported by mobile applications, barcode and Radio Frequency (RF) capabilities. These help in enhancing the warehouse efficiency and utilizing manpower effectively. To learn more about RF capabilities, see the Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System Radio Frequency User Guide. |
RWMS has some primary processes or tasks as listed:
Appointment Scheduling: Refers to the creation of a placeholder time slot at a receiving door and recording information about the goods to be received which can then be used to print receiving labels, as necessary.
Receiving: Refers to the task of physically bringing goods into the warehouse at license plate level.
Distribution and Wave Planning: Refers to distributing merchandise present in the warehouse to fulfill stock orders requesting inventory at other stores/warehouses. When a group of a stock orders is selected and attempted to be distributed, this is referred to as a wave. Distribution compiles a list of all eligible inventory in the warehouse based on the items being waved and tries to match it up with the stock allocations that were selected. The distribution logic determines the quantity to be distributed, type of picks to be performed and in which order - based on various criteria.
Transport: Refers to the process of moving the merchandise to the proper processing area within the warehouse. A transport putaway is a movement from the receiving dock to a storage location for future waving. A transport move is a movement from the receiving dock to a crossdock or flowthrough area for immediate outbound processing.
Picking: Refers to the act of physically picking merchandise (by pickers) as per the pick instructions created during the distribution planning process before it is shipped out of the warehouse.
Replenishment: Refers to the act of adding inventory to forward case or unit pick locations to sustain the pick activity assigned to those locations.
Returns: Refers to the process of returning inappropriate or damaged merchandise from the warehouse to the suppliers.
Task Management: Refers to tracking of all activities in the facility and increasing the priority of specific tasks based on defined criteria.
Labor Management (optional): Refers to establishing Labor Standards for specific activities to compare allotted time to actual time for completion of tasks.
Shipping: Refers to the loading of outbound trailers and the tracking of these shipments to their final destination (store, warehouse, or customer).
Some of the benefits offered by Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System include:
Accelerate the flow of merchandise through the supply chain, reducing lead times and freeing up working capital.
Real-time inventory management and best practices provide timely, accurate data, resulting in increased operating efficiencies and improved forecasting, planning, and allocation.
Built-in best practices, optimization algorithms, and workload monitoring.
Configurable solution supports all facility types and merchandise flows, including cross-dock, flow-through, and pick-by-line.
Built-in best practices support all facets of grocery, soft-lines, hard-lines, and consumer direct operations.
Extended execution capabilities beyond the four walls to trading partners through support of ASN, inbound planning, appointment scheduling, and yard management.
Standard integration to high-speed material handling and sorting equipment like unit, case, and garment sorters as well as pick/put-to-light equipment.
Commerce Anywhere enhancements facilitating integration of Oracle Retail applications with Customer Order Management systems for order capture and orchestration.
Best-of-breed Task Management module utilizing concepts of permission, priority, and proximity in conjunction to assign the most productive task to each employee at a specific moment in time.
Integrated Labor Management module utilizing Labor Elements, Labor Factors, Labor Conditions, and Labor Allowances to establish Labor Standards at the specific activity level.
The UI user guide provides an overview on how to use the RWMS application. The user guide contains the following topics:
