November 2006 Material Handling Tips & Information Newsletter
Islands
of Automation Solutions Suite - a Cisco-Eagle exclusive
Cisco-Eagle offers an exclusive Islands of Automation™ Solutions Suite. These technological "islands" pack functionality into a specific area to solve a specific task. Since they are modular systems, you can select those that apply to your specific processes. More importantly, we can help you tie them seamlessly to the appropriate areas of your operation...
Hold the Fort: Stop Warehouse Insecurity
by D. Douglas Graham
"Old
school approaches such as thoughtful warehouse layout, security cages,
netting, mirrors and the like are still relevant. Measures such as these
are still around because they work - but they do an even better job when
combined with new and in some cases, cutting-edge monitoring and
tracking technologies," according to Cisco-Eagle CEO Steve Strifler in
the 2006 edition of The Electrical Distributor magazine. The article
elaborates on measures any warehouse operation can take to become more
secure...
Archival Storage - How to calculate your space, ROI
This time of year, many companies, governmental agencies, and other facilities face the challenge of what to do with paper records. There are a myriad of records storage options. To assist, we have created a brief guide to archival records storage to deal with some of these issues...
Survey says WMS systems are Underutilized
A November 2006 survey from the Supply Chain Consortium found that most warehouse management systems are under-utilized. This stresses the importance of pre-work and qualification, according to CEI Logistics Consulting Manager Joe Jackson.
"The only way to optimize your investment in WMS is by methodically understanding and documenting your expectation of the system," Jackson said. "This process of documenting your expectation of the system drives the supplier's response, the evaluation of a supplier's offering, and ultimately the acceptance testing of the implemented solution."
Some key findings...
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45% percent of the reported WMS solutions are internally or custom developed.
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12% of respondents use a third-party hosting service to access their WMS solutions.
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Only 38% report using task-interleaving functionality within their WMSs.
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Only 60% of the respondents report that they perform a post-implementation audit of their supply chain technology investments.
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Less than half of the respondents use their systems to schedule appointments for their receiving docks.
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80% of respondents indicate that their WMSs are integrated to a customer or store order management system.
