Designed and Developed with the goals of providing distribution operational efficiency, business performance, and exceptional customer services AGI’s powerful Warehouse Management Software provides the flexibility, usability, and advanced features needed for growing companies.
Whether your company has an existing warehousing solution that does not fully meet your needs or your distribution requirements and customer expectations are outpacing your abilities our products are focused on
Maximizing Labor efficiency
Rapidly improving inventory and shipping accuracy
Improving operational throughput
Enabling complex customer compliance requirements
Improving customer service levels
Providing Rapid Return on Investment
AGI’s fully Web enabled WMS is an advanced and highly configurable application suitable for the simplest to most complex logistics environments. It consists of a primary application that provides all of the advanced material handling functionality expected along with a range of industry specific configurations and feature sets.
This modular approach enables rapid and lower cost implementations and ensure your unique business needs are met.
Some key functional capabilities are:
Real-Time, On-Line In formation
AGI’s WMS updates all information in its database as changes occur. Inquiries from both PC’s and RDT’s access up-to-the-second, real-time inventory data as well as order, receipt, and user status information and more. Status information is also available to the host through standard interfaces.
Multiple Warehouse
AGI’s WMS is designed to manage multiple warehouses with each facility fully defined to the bin level. All inventory, receipts, transfers, and orders in each warehouse are managed in the same consistently efficient manner. Information on each product as well as on each location and transaction in each warehouse is available on-line in real-time.
Multiple Owner (Client)
Ideal for public warehouses, AGI’s WMS tracks and manages inventory, orders, receipts, shipments, and lots by Owner (Client), allowing workers to view warehouse data by individual or multiple owners. In addition, AGI’s WMS can print every inventory, receiving, and shipping report and all picking and shipping documents by owner as needed.
User Configurability
Almost every AGI’s WMS operating parameter and rule can be accessed through easily accessible screen views. These rules and parameters, used to regulate AGI’s WMS functions (such as putaway and picking) or to store frequently used standard units of measure for each case and pallet, can be modified to meet changing business requirements.
Multi Language
AGI’s WMS is written in Java and uses Unicode for all text words and strings, supporting ALL languages. Through the String Editor, any language can be localized and each user can view and communicate in a different language. AGI’s WMS has already been translated into many languages.
Security
External access to AGI’s WMS is password and security level controlled. Within the system, the security system controls access to all PC and RDT functions, and assigns access by User Group. Each User can belong to one or more Groups, providing maximum flexibility. All AGI’s WMS security options can be maintained by the system administrator through simple, context-sensitive prompts.
System Directed Activities
AGI’s WMS uses portable Radio Frequency (RF) terminals to direct receiving, putaway, order picking, restocking, staging, cycle counting, and shipping functions in real-time, optimizing both facility and human resources. Because AGI’s WMS incorporates and uses changes in inventory levels, orders, receipts, and worker assignments as they occur, all real-time system-directed activities respond immediately to changing conditions and priorities within the warehouse.
Bar Code Readers
AGI’s WMS uses bar codes and bar code scanners to identify, enter, and track receipts, orders, restocks, and inventory. Bar coding maximizes operator efficiency and virtually eliminates data entry errors. Information that is bar coded includes, but is not limited to, product codes, receipt numbers, order numbers, lot codes, pallet IDs, carton IDs, and location codes.
On-Line Help
Taking full advantage of Windows™ help capabilities, AGI’s WMS offers a full, online hypertext instruction manual with an alphabetized index and quick topic search functionality.
Dynamic Work Assignments
In AGI’s WMS, work assignments are driven by the real-time events occurring in the warehouse. AGI’s WMS maintains a list of prioritized work types (full pallet order picking, cycle counting, etc.) for each operator. As an operator completes a task, AGI’s WMS determines the next work assignment based on overall warehouse priority, the priority of the operator’s work types, and the worker’s proximity (work zone). AGI’s WMS also temporarily bypasses tasks that would cause movement conflicts in restricted spaces or aisles.
Multi-Step Task Interleaving
In contrast to other warehousing systems, AGI’s WMS can sequence and interleave all warehouse tasks. AGI’s WMS maintains a single, comprehensive "work pool" which contains all types of tasks (including user defined tasks, such as sweeping, cleanup, etc.) and sequences, and interleaves those tasks based on system and management set rules. AGI’s WMS can, for example, determine that it is more efficient for a selected worker to do two picks, a staging operation, and a putaway rather than some other sequence of tasks, and then assign those tasks to the selected worker in the pre-determined, efficient sequence.
Product Movement Rule Management
AGI’s WMS System Tables can be set up to manage complex movement rules, such as assigning only narrow aisle trucks to aisle picking and conventional fork trucks to tasks outside aisles. Any number of movement rules and steps can be set up to automatically manage the flow of product through various types of locations in the warehouse.
Activity Tracking and Audit Trail Creation
AGI’s WMS tracks and records all product related activities occurring in the warehouse. In addition, non-inventory transactions can also be tracked. Each transaction is date and time-stamped and can be accessed and displayed by transaction type, user ID, product code, or other parameters. Information displayed includes date, time, owner, user, location, item, quantity, pallet and carton ID, and lot. Any portion of this transaction information can be uploaded to the host system.
Web Access
Web Access uses the Internet to allow the option of secure, remote access to AGI’s WMS. Many warehouses still operate as stand alone entities, where users can only log on the WMS via PC’s™; although increasingly, supervisors and managers need to log on remotely using a browser. With web access this is a straightforward process, but the greatest benefits of web access accrue when information is shared with those outside the company to give suppliers visibility of their inventory as part of a VMI program, or to give customers a real-time view of stock availability or order status. In such cases, web access provides totally secure access to AGI’s WMS.
Reports
AGI’s WMS can print or display dozens of management reports useful for operations management and systems maintenance. Reports provided include: Inventory Summary, Location File Listings, Open Order, and Open Receipt Reports. All display screens in AGI’s WMS can be printed on demand. Additionally, AGI’s WMS lets users change the way data is sorted, filtered, displayed, and printed, and provides a print preview capability so users can review and further manipulate reports prior to submitting them to a printer or the print spooler. AGI’s WMS has extremely powerful ad hoc report writing capabilities inherent in the underlying AGI’s WMS application which allows users to develop ad hoc reports quickly and easily.
Receiving
Inbound goods can be received in many different ways (blind, PO, return, MFG, or user defined), using either RDT’s or PC’s. Using multiple UoM’s and pallet identity numbers allows entire pallets or trailer loads to be received with a single scan.
Putaway
Algorithms can be set for individual products or groups, allowing sophisticated placement strategies to be put in place. Goods can be pre-labeled for AGI’s WMS. All inventory movements are recorded in the database, making full traceability of all material movements possible.
Cycle Counting
Stock checking tasks can be automatically scheduled or manually generated by a product, area, etc. Continuous, real-time counting means that there is never a requirement to suspend operations for stock checking.
Inventory Control
Stock accuracy is greatly improved due to the real-time operation of AGI’s WMS. All inventory movements are recorded in the database, making full traceability of all material movements possible.
Ship Order Management
AGI’s WMS presents all outstanding Ship Orders in an easily understood overview screen, showing the status of each. Orders can be grouped (for example, by customer or delivery route) and put on hold or released with a single click. Users can drill down on any order to get more related information.
Picking
AGI’s WMS selects the most appropriate inventory to be picked to satisfy shipping order requirements based on product rules, location rules, and UoM. Replenishment tasks are automatically generated to keep pick faces in stock.
Packing
The system controls inventory as it progresses from picking to shipping. Repacking (for example, from a picking container to a shipping carton) can be carried out using either a PC or an RDT. As well as confirming the weight and number of items in a carton, Special Order Handling, serial numbers, and labels can be processed at this point.
Shipping
Information from the order header, including address details, carrier preferences, etc., is used to manage shipment of orders. Contents lists providing valuable carton contents information and address or carrier labels can be printed.
Task Management
Tasks can be grouped in various ways (for example, by
customer, area, or type) and groups of tasks can easily be put on hold or released in real time. By clicking on any task, users can obtain further information relating to it.
Cross-docking
AGI’s WMS recognizes when inbound inventory is required for outbound orders and can be configured to transfer products to a ship dock or other location rather than put away. It is also possible to cross-dock part of a quantity of goods before putting the balance into storage.
Quality Assurance
AGI’s WMS can automatically divert inbound inventory for quality checking based on rules related to inventory type or supplier. It also allows operators to manually flag stock that shows a quality problem. Where product is to be returned, operators can create orders to do this. Complex returns handling and QA check stages can be built in.
Vehicle Loading
Where many warehouse management systems stop at order shipment, AGI’s WMS controls goods movement onto delivery vehicles and coordinates this with other tasks such as picking and packing. This allows orders to be picked to later deadlines and then loaded in reverse drop sequence. The system also checks shipments for completeness and accuracy right up to point of placement on the vehicle.
Multi-Site Operation
AGI’s WMS can be set up to manage multiple distribution centers with a single system. This has cost, operational, and technical benefits over using a separate WMS at each site. The system's hallmark flexibility remains intact: every site can be run independently, in line with its own operational requirements.
Velocity Management
The Velocity Manager regularly calculates the speed of movement of SKU’s in the warehouse and uses this information with details of physical attributes to dynamically alter the areas where each SKU is stored and picked. As Velocity Manager does this in real time, inventory is always stored in the most appropriate location even as demand changes. This means that the fastest moving items in the warehouse will always be located closest to the picking area, reducing travel time during replenishment as well as in the picking process itself.
Volumetric Picking
The system can propose picking or packing containers of the correct number and size, depending on the order being picked. This reduces packing waste and eliminates the need for repacking before shipment.
Hold (QA Hold)
When it becomes necessary to hold stock due to various reasons (i.e. QA, damaged goods, etc.), AGI’s WMS has the ability to flag the stock so that it will not be used to fill orders. When the stock is available after QA has released it, the user can release the stock from hold.
Consolidation
The users can merge stock into one location or by unit of measure, utilizing space more efficiently.
Building Replenishment
AGI’s WMS has the ability to move stock from Building A to Building B. By setting up the minimum amount of stock that can be stored in Building B, the WMS can track when stock needs to be replenished in that building.
Track Picks
Track Picks offers the ability to view the progress of orders that are being used for picking and allows orders to be released to the floor for picking as docks become available. Additionally, in the Track Pick screen, the user can view by status or type based on area.
