Le magazine SCALLOG de la robotisation logistique à l'ère de la Supply Chain intelligente.

“Stock management has a direct impact on the financial health of the enterprise, its development and its ability to meet demand. That’s why it must be optimized at all costs. This means avoiding stockouts in particular.

Stock management is an essential factor in optimizing the sustainability of an enterprise. The ability to manage stock efficiently is crucial for generating a good turnover rate and avoiding over-stocking and stock shortages. In this article you can find out everything you need to know about stock management: its definition, roles, methods, objectives and key metrics.

Handling is an integral part of logistics. Its purpose is to move products, at the “right” cost , in the “right” quantity and at the “right” time, to the “right” location. “Handling”designates all manner of actions performed manually in the distribution centre.

For enterprises in today’s world, where customers are increasingly demanding in terms of service and speed of delivery, logistics can make the difference between success and failure. The key to success lies in a powerful and agile supply chain. And that’s where Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) prove invaluable.

In order fulfilment, we make a distinction between wholesale picking and retail picking. Wholesale picking deals with large quantities, generally destined for re-stocking retail outlets. In wholesale picking we never take a single article - we take boxes or whole pallets of products. In retail picking, only a few products with certain characteristics (size, colour etc.) are picked.

In today’s world, huge amounts of information circulate instantly. In distribution centres, during major spikes in activity, stocks have to be increased to keep up with sales volumes and meet delivery pledges. Which means logistics professionals must be able to rely on a high-performance information system. This is where ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) comes in.

According to a study by Boston Consulting, the second-hand market is expected to grow by 15 to 20% over the next 5 years, responding to new consumer trends to make "smart" purchases, to reconcile pleasure with a concern for purchasing power and the environment.

Intralogistics automation is a key issue for enterprises. Why mobilize labour to get stuff when you can automate these tasks and focus employees on high value-added activities instead? In supply chain logistics, two types of robotic automation systems are used: Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR.).

“Order picking is one of the fundamental steps in the order dispatching process. Each picking operation is triggered by the reception of a customer order form. “Picking” designates the supply chain operation during which products are removed (“picked”) from a storage area before consolidation and shipment to the customer. Picking is a time-consuming and tedious task, and errors can occur.