The Challenge
As the company grew through the first decade of the 2000s, warehouse expansion was inevitable. First AKW relocated from an office and warehouse in Worcester to its present site, including offices and warehousing, on a trading estate in Droitwich. But it quickly outgrew the space and needed to take on a second warehouse on the other side of the trading estate.
“It was really the scale of our warehousing expansion that led us to take on the Access WMS,” says Louise Marshall.
“We knew our existing solution didn’t meet our requirements in terms of management, picking lists, picking locations, etc. – the system could not handle the number of locations and products. So we decided to get a warehouse solution in, and Access WMS suited our needs.”
AKW continued to expand, to the point that its two present warehouses are each four times the size of its original one facility. Until last year, the company used to pick from both warehouses on the trading estate, managing them as two separate maps.
“We used to pick orders from both warehouses but, occasionally the order had to be split between the warehouses, depending on the location of the products. This caused additional work for the warehouse in order to pick two separate orders,” says Louise.
The Solution
AKW had an in-house CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. AKW redeployed Access WMS as a single graphical warehouse map, bringing both warehouses on to one site map.
“That was a big advantage for us; it simplifies processes, and makes it easier to transfer stock between warehouses. Instead of having to do goods-out and goods-in, we can use a drag-and-drop facility to transfer stock between sites. That has reduced our picking errors and increased our service to the customers.”
"The single map system enables AKW to take more orders more efficiently, and achieve better recording of stock and traceability" adds Louise
Since first taking on Access WMS, the company has always worked closely with Access WMS technicians, continually improving the system, although it has often stopped short of embarking on total upgrades. A new policy will change that.
AKW is also moving on to an entirely new server; it will be handing over hardware and server to Access Group, which will install the new Access WMS database on AKW’s behalf.
“This will go through a phase of rigorous testing in-house to iron out any issues,” says Louise.
“When we are all happy, we will then release that, and change our system to the new server – a process that will take a few months.”
AKW will continue to work closely with Access to constantly improve its processes and working
procedures, she adds.
Training
For AKW, an important aspect of its relationship with Access is the ability to call in Access WMS consultants to provide training as and when needed.
“Having Access WMS consultants in for a day’s training has proved really useful; with any system you have used for some time, it is good to get in the specialists who can show us (or remind us of) the different ways of using it, where we might not be using it as fully as we should,” says Louise.
AKW has recently put in place a system of delegated ‘senior Access WMS users’ in-house, who are also training other users. In the past, the Access WMS and its usage largely came under the control of the company’s IT team.
“But we wanted to pass that back to the staff in the warehouse who are actually using Access WMS; they should be the specialists and have the knowledge, having worked closely with Access WMS. So now, instead of bringing their queries to internal IT here, they go straight to the Access help desk for support.”
The Future
AKW has recently introduced a new dedicated transport fleet which has added an additional service level when shipping customer orders.
“As an additional service, we have introduced a phased delivery service, so each customer has a weekly delivery day. That gives us benefits because we can forward-plan our picks. We have used Access WMS and the fields in Access WMS to achieve this. We want to work with Access WMS in the future to improve that process of phased deliveries while continuing to offer premium delivery services.”
Meanwhile, the company is moving into the retail market alongside its traditional business.
“Traditionally we have been in the mobility needs and public sector market. We already have a presence in the retail market but are looking to increase our market share, by stocking and supplying bathroom boutiques and other retail outlets.”
AKW’s business has clearly expanded and evolved dramatically in recent years and Access WMS is playing a vital role in this.