Design And Implementation Of Stock Management System

Introduction

1.1 Introduction

A stock management system is a key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, put away and picking. The systems also direct and optimize warehouse put away based on real-time information about the status of bin utilization.

The objective of a stock management system is to provide a set of computerized procedures to handle the receipt of warehouse and returns into a warehouse facility, model and manage the logical representation of the physical storage facilities (e.g. racking etc), manage the warehouse within the facility and enable a seamless link to order processing and logistics management in order to pick, pack and ship product out of the facility.

In its simplest form, the stock management system can data track products during the production process and act as an interpreter and message buffer between existing ERP (Enterprise resource planning) and stock management systems. Stock Management is not just managing within the boundaries of a warehouse today; it is much wider and goes beyond the physical boundaries. Inventory management, inventory planning, cost management, IT applications & communication technology to be used are all related to warehouse management. The container storage, loading and unloading are also covered by warehouse management today. Even production management is to a great extent dependent on stock management. Efficient stock management gives a cutting edge to a retail chain distribution company. Warehouse management does not just start with receipt of material but it actually starts with actual initial planning when container design is made for a product. Warehouse design and process design within the warehouse (e.g. Wave Picking) is also part of warehouse management. Warehouse management is part of Logistics and SCM.

Warehouse Management monitors the progress of products through the warehouse. It involves the physical warehouse infrastructure, tracking systems, and communication between product stations.

Warehouse management deals with receipt, storage and movement of goods, normally finished goods, to intermediate storage locations or to final customer. In the multi-echelon model for distribution, there are levels of warehouses, starting with the Central Warehouse(s), regional warehouses services by the central warehouses and retail warehouses at the third level services by the regional warehouses and so on. The objective of warehousing management is to help in optimal cost of timely order fulfillment by managing the resources economically.

1.2 Project Overview

This project gives a company the convenience of controlling the activity in the warehouse and thereby giving information to managers to assist in proper decision making the company. This project is pursued with Effison Limited as the focus of impact. The major modules of the project are:

User login module:

This module would be the first to appear when a user launches the proposed system. These would help to ensure that un-authorized user don’t have access to the system. At start-up users would be required to login with their username and password.

Reports module

This module would be used for managerial staff for proper decision making in the day- to – day activity of the company.

Customer module

This module would be responsible in registering a customer into the company database. This information used during the registration process would then be used during shipping to direct goods to the appropriate customer

New item module

This would be responsible for the acknowledgment of goods into the warehouse.

Warehouse update module

This module would be used during the process of updating the quantity of a particular good in the warehouse.

1.3 Problem Statement

The majority of the problems that occur in the warehouse occur because of a lack of control: a lack of inventory control, operational control and or management control. To become a dynamic, consistent organization, all the operation must be under control. In order to achieve this control, all the tools and technology available has to be used to get control and manage the warehouse operation. A control system is a means, mechanism or procedure by which we manage these operations

In Effison Limited the method used in tracking goods involves the traditional record keeping and identifying products according to written labels. Inventory management and distribution typically relies on a traditional process of taking a physical inventory of products and manually ordering refills, while also eliminating product that is nearing or passed its expiry.

In the recording of a transaction only a single employee at a time is able to enter the record on a ledger book and furthermore some goods are not entered in the book but sold directly. Reports are not generated daily, weekly or monthly but only on a yearly basis and this cause mishandling of funds among the employees. The warehouse does not have a backup and recovery for the products of transactions journals made for the inventory items. Security is not there because the users and the administrators both perform the same tasks.

1.4 Objectives

stock management within warehouses is a challenge given the characteristic value specific nature of the products. Global visibility of finished and semi-finished products can greatly improve both inventory turnover and maximize production efficiency. One of the major goals in Stock Management is to track, store and move goods and materials efficiently; keeping inventory levels down while still always having enough products on hand. Picking and packing, controlling logistics documents, and in and outbound monitoring are all part of this process. The operations of this software include the following:

Lowering Working Capital

Increase inventory turns

Managing Fixed Assets & Resources

Improve physical inventory process,

Prevent selling expired products.

To keep track of all transaction to prevent any losses.

To conduct casual analysis to identify common trends in transaction by means of reports.

To prevent the company from running out of warehouses.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The Stock management system is intended to cover all the operations of the company. The scope and tasks of the research project include finding out the scale of implementation of stock management system and perceived barriers for adoption, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of warehouse management system currently adopted by the industry as a whole

Chapter Six

Conclusion

6.1 Introduction

The majority of warehousing problems occur because of a lack of inventory control, operations, and/or management. To become dynamic, successful and consistent, an organization must control its warehouse operations. A principal requirement for controlling the warehouse is harnessing the power of technology to maximize a facility’s potential. Furthermore, the road to overall organizational excellence goes right through the warehouse door. A control system is a means by which operations are managed. It can be manual or computerized. Its basic objectives are:

To identify and coordinate the work

Help maximize performance and customer satisfaction and minimize mistakes.

To report the past, present, and future work status via activity-based costing.

A manual control system uses physical, paper-based technology to attempt to streamline warehousing operations. Due to the rate of change; demands for accurate real-time information; expectations of next-day service and marketplace competition, the use of manual systems in the 21st century is unrealistic. Today, the need to computerize is critical; tomorrow it will be too late.

A computerized stock management system is the integration of bar coding technology, radio frequency (RF) communications equipment, hardware, and software. The sophistication ofstock management system can vary from simple warehouse location control to systems that can nearly maximize customer satisfaction, space, labor, and equipment in the warehouse. It is important to note that one should not confuse stock management system technology with business systems applications that impact the warehouse. A mainframe inventory control application or module is not a WMS. A manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) system is not a stock management system. Astock management system is an operating tool that is based upon the needs of the warehouse operation and provides tools and information for the management of the warehouse

6.2 Summary of the Work

The objective of a stock management system is to provide a set of computerized procedures to handle the receipt of warehouse and returns into a warehouse facility, model and manage the logical representation of the physical storage facilities (e.g. racking etc), manage the warehouse within the facility and enable a seamless link to order processing and logistics management in order to pick, pack and ship product out of the facility. The stock management system designed contains all the basic features of a modern stock management system. Several modules have being created so as to enable the users of the system to carry out their function in the warehouse. Examples of this module are new item module which helps to add a new item to the system, customer module which helps to register any customer the company would be dealing with, warehouse update module which would be used to increase the quantity for a particular type of good selected, order module which would be used when a customer comes to order goods from the warehouse. Reports module was also created to help managers to be able to view the day-to-day activities going on in the company.

6.3 Advantages of Your System

The stock management system would help management to access an instant picture of how much inventory exists in the warehouse, how many orders are currently being shipped, what are the stages of processing of pending orders, staff productivity details, goods shipped by the warehouse over any given period of time.

The stock management system would help to generate productivity reports for each operator and can be used to implement productivity based remuneration schemes or to fire unproductive employees. For those warehouses that have to come up with Union problems these reports can help the company tremendously. Efficient tracking of warehouses activities are possible with warehouse management system as it provides a comprehensive set of web-enabled reports detailing all the activities happening in the warehouse and their effect on the inventory management

6.4 limitations

The limitation involved in the stock management system is that of Paperless Receiving and Picking using Bar code.

Due to the limited time that was made available, we were not able to complete this module, so as to enable us to be able to determine products using bar code scanners.

Another limitation of this system is that of the intranet system used to design it. Users can only use the system only when they are within the company’s network. By going outside these network users cannot connect to the company’s database by so doing he or she cannot work.

6.5 Future Enhancement

The development of any software takes some time to be completed. This includes the software going through a series of research and test to make sure that the software meets all requirements specified. Since this software was designed in a relatively short period and within limited time, several modules that were intended to be included could not materialize. The further scope of this software calls for more enhancements and an upgrade of the software.

An introduction of a web based warehouse management system in other to help customers directly pay for their goods online without the need of coming down to the warehouse to purchase their goods. There will also be a client login account in which client’s uses to logon to the server and an administrator will be monitoring any clients made to the server.

Due to the limited time that was given to us we not able to finish with the module where goods could be automatically recorded with the use of gadgets such as bar code scanners.

6.6 Conclusion

Developing a software solution to manage all the activities within warehouse is an overwhelming task. The chapters of this paper are intended to explain those processes by breaking it down into a series of smaller-scale modules. For most solutions, choosing the appropriate tool will require the developer to weigh the importance of several solution criteria. While there are so many solutions that might accomplish this task, the classical system development life cycle was chosen. Although time limitation did not permit the addition of some useful features, yet we hope that the process of maintenance will meet this need.

In practice, successful stock management system solutions are generally designed to merge computer hardware, software, and peripheral equipment with improved operating practices for managing inventory, space, labor, and capital equipment in warehouse and distribution centers. Implementation of stock management system allows a company to increase its competitive advantage by reducing labor costs, improving customer service, increasing inventory accuracy, and improving flexibility and responsiveness. It helps a company to manage inventory in real time, with information as current as the most recent order, shipment, or receipt and any movement in between. Also bear in mind that the package you settle on can perform a variety of functions. For example, enterprise management software can perform financial management, business analytics, quality management, materials management and inventory control, traceability and data collection among other things. Evaluate both your business needs and the capability of the package in question to see if you have an optimal fit.