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Warehouse Management Systems at Tesco and Welham Green

Introduction

Warehouse management system or WMS helps to manage the warehouse operations of a given company or

organization. It is considered as an integrated package where in the different components are consists of RF

communications devices, hardware, dedicated localized computer, automatic identification equipment together with the

necessary applications software (Tompkins & Smith 1998, p. 708). It is being used in order to minimize the cost that

are associated or connected to space, equipment as well as labor, together with the performance in the real-time that

directs and manages the labor. In addition to that, it can also help to maximize the utilization of different equipments as
well as tracks, control and manage the inventory (Tompkins & Smith 1998, p. 708).

WMS is already considered as a foundation in order to strengthen and support the logistics of companies and

organizations (Chen & Huang p. 1063). It can help to enhance the control over the different warehouse operations,

from receiving and storing different items or products up to the retrieving and shipment of the said products (Starinksy
2002, p. 529).

There are different activities and tasks that are incorporated in the WMS, the following are the few: first is that

it is responsible in tracking different changes in the status, like the location of the materials or products that are on hold

and waiting for inspections or those materials or products that are already released or passed the inspection and are

available for the use in the production; another important task that is included in the system is that it help to direct the

picking of different finished product by warehouse location in order to retrieve for shipment; it can also help to automate

the publication of different reports of materials as well as finished products that will give thorough information about the

performance of production as well as to give information that will be helpful for the management; and it can also keep

track of the different material management activities o put a dollar value on the different functions of storing as well as
retrieving of the inventories of the products (Boucher & Yalcin 2006, p. 11).

Tesco: Background of the Company

Tesco plc. is a UK-based global supermarket chain with the total of over 20 billion annual revenues. It

considered as an already established presence with the use of huge bricks-and-mortar infrastructure and that is why it
is considered as the worlds most successful as well as most profitable online grocery (Peppers & Rogers 2004, p.
464).
 The Tesco distribution network is consist of nine regional composite centres, a bonded warehouse that serves

the whole country, three additional nations centres for slower moving lines as well as five regional ambient centres.
The depot that is located in the Welham Green is one of the regional ambient centres.

Due to the growing demand for technology and innovation, as well as the different challenges that the global

market and business is facing, the company had decided to include the WMS to their past paper-based system. With

the help of the computer and other technologies, the company had been able to establish and implement their new

computerized system that had helped them to improve their overall performance by developing their operation

efficiency, reducing their different stockholding costs that eventually helped them to have a faster access to their

different management report. On the other hand, the company had also faced different dilemmas such as the change

management and the difficulties of the new technology. The change management pertains to the relationship of the

employees to the change that had happened to the company. The reaction and the feelings of the employees with
regards to the technology is an important factor because, although there are different technologies that are used in

order to aid the overall process, the cooperation and performance of the overall human resource is still the most

important part. Another problem is the difficulty of the technology itself, pertains to the flow of the usage of the system,
together with the different technologies and machines.

Operational Problems and Future Developments

If you are going to analyze the overall problem of the operational aspect of the company with the connection

to the current distribution system, the main problems focuses on the three most important factors: first is the mispick,
second is in the process of letdown and the last is the pallet bar codes.

Mispick

The mispick occurs through two important reasons: first are the error of the picker; and the error of the picking

merchandise. Although, the error in the said problems can be considered as no big deal, or cause small amount of

error, it will cause trouble in the future, because the error may be cumulative. If you are going to look at the said error,

both are from the relationship of human to the machine. No matter how good the computer system and no matter how

advance the machineries and technologies that are used, if the human who are operating and using it are not that

practiced or familiar with its overall flow and process, it will cause a big problem for the system as a whole. This is due

to the fact that the inventory and distribution system of the company is directly connected to the overall system of the

company such as the sale and the delivery. The data and information that are used in the system are also used in

different areas and aspects of the companys database such as sales forecasting and marketing. It is important to

maintain the consistency of data in order to make sure that it will be helpful for the companys overall decision-making
process.
 In the said problem, it is important to focus on the overall connection or role of the picker and the merchandise

to the overall process. First and foremost, it will be helpful if the company will create their module or user manual that

is applicable for the merchandise and the picker about their importance to the company. It will also be important to train

the picker as well as the person who is handling the task in the merchandise in the picking location with accordance to

the current standard of the company in entering or inputting different data and information to the system. By making

them feel that they are important to the overall process of the company, it will give them motivation to work using their
best ability and knowledge.

The second problem pertains to the residual stocks that are left in the picking location from the previous pallet.

With accordance to the said problem, it is important to include the activity of process of clearing away the different

empty pallets in order to ensure that the company will have the knowledge about the number of stocks that are

remaining in a given picking location. In this case, the company will have the say or order to the FLT operators with
regards to what to do about the remaining stock.

The last problem pertains to the problem about the scan guns as well as the pallet bar codes. The primary

solution as well as prevention strategy that can be used in order to solve the said problem is to generate a clearer bar

code for the pallet. This is due to the fact that the labels are also produced by the Denver System of the company. The

said process will also prevent the error of manual input of the bar codes. With regards to the use of the scan guns, it is

important for the company to train the user of the said gadget or tool, about the proper handling as well as its dos and
donts.

Conclusion

The inventory and distribution is considered as one of the most important aspects of any companies that are

involved in a supply chain. It can help them to manage and control the overall flow of products of materials that are

used in production and distribution. The said importance is the reason why, most of the companies are already using

the technology of WMS. It is a computerized system that helps many companies to incorporate the different aspects of
their operations in order to control the physical flow of their supply chain.

In case of Tesco, the primary problem of its WMS is that, the management did not focus on the importance of

the different entities that are connected to the overall flow of data and information from and into the company. It is

important to know the role and significance of different entities to the system in order to give them the focus in the

system. Another important factor is that the connection and relationship of one subsystem to another and its connection

to the overall system is also important. Like for example the generation of the bar code, due to the fact that it produces

unclear copy of bar code, it can cause future problems to the process of reading or inputting the barcode by the FLT

drivers. It is also important to give trainings and guide for all the entities in order for them to know their importance to
the overall system.
References

Boucher, T & Yalcin, A 2006, Design of Industrial Information Systems, Academic Press

Chen, M C, Huang C L, Wu H P, Hsu, M F & Hsu, F H 2005, A Data Mining Technique to Grouping Customer
Orders in Warehouse Management System , in | Abraham, A (ed.), Soft Computing As Transdisciplinary

Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4thIEEE International Workshop WSTST 05 (pp. 1063 -

1073), Springer

Peppers, D & Rogers, M 2004, Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework, John Wiley and Sons

Starinsky, R 2002, Implementing J. D. Edwards OneWorld, Thomson Course Technology

Tompkins, J & Smith, J 1998, The Warehouse Management Handbook, Tompkins Press