Warehouse Management

Last week I blogged about important role of compliance mandates in warehousing. Here is a quick summary of these standards for which compliance is needed in warehousing operations:

Obviously there are numerous compliance mandates that a warehouse needs to wrestle with. Moreover some of these compliance mandates are ever changing. What does a warehouse need to do to stay on top of these and not get charge backs from customers?

Warehouses clearly need a system that is flexible enough to address the compliance mandates as well as adjust to frequent changes to these compliance standards. I will quickly summarize some of the important compliance mandates and our commitment to  them in Oracle WMS:

• Shipping Label Compliance is one of the most common compliance demand. In Oracle WMS, using simple setup forms one could configure:

• 1.    When to request a label print?

• 2.    What label layout should be selected under what circumstances?

• 3.    Which fields should be printed on the label?

• 4.    Which printer to use for printing?

• SSCC-18 (Serialized Shipping Container Code) is the 18 digit number applied on shipping containers that is unique in global context. Oracle WMS can create license plate numbers (including the Modulo-10 check digit) as per SSCC-18 standards and also send  the container details in outbound ASN. See the following UCC-128 label that was generated for the Vision Operations enterprise.

• GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) data structures such as UPC, EAN-8, EAN-13 and EAN.UCC-14 are codes that are applied on SKUs. You can include these numbers in labels as well as scan these labels if the items are already barcoded using this standard.  If you need to generate GTIN (UPC, EAN-8, EAN-13 and EAN.UCC-14) you can use the Excel  worksheet that is available on this blig by clicking here.
  

• EPC (Electronic Product Code) are unique IDs such as SGTIN-64, SGTIN-96, SSCC-64, etc. that are generated based on EPCGlobal standards and encoded on the RFID tag. Once again its possible for WMS to generate EPCs and include it as a label field. On the other hand if your supplier is sending you tagged item, its possible to receive it based on the RFID read.

• Numerous Barcode Standards like UCC-128, ANSI/FACT (Electronic and Hi Tech), AIAG (Automotive), SPEC 2000 (Aerospace), EIAJ (Japanese Electronic Industry) can be supported using Field Identifiers and Bar Code scanning framework in WMS.

• Shipping Documents like VICS bill of lading and other regulatory documents can be generated during the outbound process.

The MMH article concludes that the next big wave in development of Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is software. The first wave as we all know was all about RFID tags, RFID readers and standards. In the last few years we have seen a plethora of readers,  tags and standards emerge and then become obsolete. The newer tags and readers based on Class 1 Gen2 standard protocol hold tremendous potential: interoperability between heterogeneous tags and readers, better and faster read rates, uniform tag standards for use in extended supply chain, improvised security etc. The EPCIS standards would make it easier to share RFID data. With hardware and standards issues mainly addressed, the next wave of development will be software. What will be some of the development in this wave? Some thoughts:

• Software improvements for RFID enablement: RFID enabling an application flow is still a cumbersome process. Expect improvements in this area that makes it easier to orchestrate an RFID flow.

• Mobile RFID Applications: Advances in RFID hardware mean that RFID reader can be small and powerful enough to be deployed in a mobile environment. Already these handheld devices are commercially available from Motorola, Intermec and others. What does this mean for handheld transactions that are designed for barcode entry? With RFID reader deployed on a mobile device, its possible to simultaneously read multiple products/containers. This requires a paradigm shift in current crop of mobile applications that are designed to serially process each barcode read.
  

• Packaged software for RFID applications: As RFID software evolves, expect more choices for off the shelf software involving little or no customization.

• Sensor based computing: RFID is just another sensor based technology. There are many more areas where a physical world device needs an interface to the application systems. Manufacturing applications needs interface with manufacturing execution systems. WMS needs integration with material handling equipments like conveyors, guided vehicles, robots, etc. A unified approach to handling all sensor technologies is clearly beneficial to all.

• Feature rich software at lower price points: As software evolves, one can expect more robust functionality. Wider adoption and usage would also lower the price point for standard software.

• Collaboration and Analyitcs: RFID software can generate vast amount of data in the extended supply chain. A number of smaller suppliers to big box retailers, see little value or ROI in complying with RFID mandates. Even the raw data coming from such systems may be meaningless without sophisticated collaboration mechanism and analysis. Software can come to rescue here. It can facilitate data sharing and provide meaningful analytics.

Just like the RFID technology, RFID software is also evolving. Very rapidly if I can say so! I will elaborate on this chain of thought in a subsequent post. Meanwhile some useful links:

Oracle RFID and Sensor-Based Services

Oracle WMS Data Sheet

Warehouse Control System (WCS)/Material Handling Equipment (MHE)  Integration