Warehouse Management
Warehouses managed by Menlo Worldwide Logistics offer customers a competitive supply chain advantage through cost control, visibility and responsiveness. Our clients see reductions of 30 percent to 50 percent in time spent on forklift, clerical and inventory activities. Our procedures for security and inventory control give our clients 99.99 percent inventory accuracy, reducing their costs and enhancing their abilities to meet customer order requirements.
Every client has unique needs based upon their market requirements and manufacturing constraints. Menlo Worldwide Logistics works with each client to design a warehouse strategy that will optimize the overall supply chain efficiency. Menlo Worldwide Logistics’ U.S. and European networks of multi-client warehouses provide two-day delivery to 90 percent of the population. To meet each client’s business objectives, Menlo Worldwide Logistics has pioneered numerous techniques in logistics management — and continues to set industry standards for innovation.
Warehouse Management
Our advanced Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) allow us a great degree of flexibility in our operations to accommodate our clients’ various requirements. The system, enabled by radio frequency (RF) data collection and distribution, provides state-of-the-art picking and inventory tracking with unparalleled accuracy.
Other features of the system are:
- Real-time inventory visibility
- Multiple picking methodologies supported
- Radio frequency data collection
- Custom bar-code label generation
- Task interleaving
- First-in, first-out/Last-in, first-out/Lot code rotation
- System-directed picking and receiving
- Cluster picking
- Kitting
Warehouse Facilities
Menlo Worldwide Logistics offers dedicated and shared warehouse facilities all over the globe. This strategy employs a shared technology base to afford customers scalable solutions. Our warehouses offer state-of-the-art security to match individual client needs, vital to maintaining high levels of inventory control. Network analysis and specialized tools optimize the warehouse and distribution facility locations, uniting warehouse location, postponement, trade management, inventory and transportation costs to create the best combination of service and cost for a client. Menlo Worldwide Logistics has experience in designing warehouse space for optimal efficiency, using simulation and schematics to derive the ideal operating techniques.
Warehouse Operations and Metrics
Menlo Worldwide Logistics operates warehouses using repeatable, documented processes with technology that optimizes labor scheduling. For example, our automated workflow management will batch orders for identical items and assign an order picker to select them together in a technique called cluster picking. Cluster-picked items are brought to the shipping area, where they are distributed among various orders.
Cross-docking
Menlo Worldwide Logistics' cross-dock centers keep our clients’ products moving continuously, even in the most demanding situations. A successful cross-dock program requires precision timing of carriers and complete visibility — tracking every truck or container and every item — at every point of the shipment. Cross-docking can be used as an inventory postponement strategy. Imported goods are sorted and directed to regional distribution centers based upon current requirements. This enables inventory deployment decisions made weeks earlier to be adjusted based on sales that occurred during the ocean voyage.
Inventory Management Programs
Once the materials are in the warehouse, Menlo Worldwide Logistics optimizes the time spent handling inventory through careful assignment of storage locations. Techniques such as dynamic slotting, in which our warehouse system automatically optimizes the location of products in the warehouse based on their activity level, can dramatically reduce order-picking time and associated labor costs. Our inventory management programs can dramatically improve inventory accuracy, up to 99.99 percent in most cases. Complex rules for lot-tracking compliance are handled consistently. Whether it is a food industry client that must ensure a supplier never receives a shipment with a date code that is earlier than a prior shipment, or an automotive client that must track lots for quality purposes, Menlo Worldwide Logistics has tools and processes to guarantee compliance.
Our Lean warehousing philosophy ensures continual operational improvements, waste elimination and high ongoing operating efficiencies. There is a sharp focus on labor productivity, enabled by optimized layout, system-directed putaway and task interleaving. In addition to operating efficiencies, Lean warehouse operations mean fewer errors, faster turnaround times and process standardization across facilities. Menlo Worldwide Logistics’ Lean facilities utilize Six Sigma, statistical process control and ISO processes to create a mistake-proof operating environment.