There are five strategies for immediately upgrading your warehouse.

One of the best places to start the digital transformation in your warehouse is with barcode technology integrated into your ERP. This helps to eliminate errors, prevent mis-picks, improve lot traceability, and streamline cycle counting.

Here are five tips from Arbotech Solutions.

1. Go paperless to streamline processes.

Going paperless aims to reduce or eliminate data lag and inaccuracies caused by paperwork sitting on people’s desks waiting to be keyed into other systems.

Integrating barcode scanning into your ERP is a straightforward way to begin collecting reliable data about on-the-floor transactions such as cycle counting tickets, pick-up slips, delivery notes, purchase orders, and more. When you scan a barcode, the system instantly updates so that everyone can see what’s going on.

2. Label automation can help you save time.

Data is immediately entered into your ERP by barcode reading devices. However, before you can scan an item, you’ll need a solid process in place for barcode labels, including when and where items receive their labels, what kind of information needs to be captured, and what label format to use.

What type of barcode is appropriate for the job?

When most people hear the term “barcode,” they envision a series of lines and spaces that encode a single piece of information.

However, they are not always optimal because a single label may require separate barcodes (and thus several scans) to capture all of the necessary transaction details.

3. Increase visibility by capturing data in real time.

Nothing is more infuriating than having your front office staff call the warehouse to double-check if an item is in stock before taking an order. Using barcode scanners eliminates wasted time and frustration by ensuring accurate inventory.

4. You can save time by scanning barcodes.

We’ve all played telephone tag at some point. When a customer service representative calls a warehouse manager to check on the status of an order, a voicemail is left.

The warehouse calls the customer service representative for clarification on an order, but the CSR is already on the phone. When you multiply this back-and-forth across many employees, many times a day, you get a lot of wasted time.

Barcode scanning ensures that information is up to date in both the office and the warehouse. There will be no more phone or email tag.

5. Increase your precision by validating as you receive, move, and pick.

Where is the best place to catch errors?

Barcode scanning validates SKUs, locations, lot and serial numbers, and more at the physical point of work as the operator scans them.

If you select the incorrect item, the operator will receive an immediate notification. This eliminates errors such as shipping the incorrect item to the customer (returns are expensive margin-killers) and counting the incorrect items during cycle counts (which results in inaccurate inventory and all the myriad problems resulting from this).