Distributed order management key to best practice
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/18/2007 11:44:00 AM
Distributed order management is most essential to simultaneously achieving on-time shipment with reduction in costs for multisite operations, according to a recent report from Boston-based Aberdeen Group.
“You need multisite visibility to see where everything is, and the status of work across all sites. And you need warehouse management software at each facility to automate receipt, put away, and status of inventory,” says Ian Hobkirk, senior analyst in Aberdeen’s logistics practice. “But the real key to customer service and cost reduction is distributed order management, which orchestrates and maps how orders are going to be filled.
“Distributed order management takes data from the warehouse management systems and, based on business rules, determines the best location to fill the order,” Hobkirk adds, which sometimes involves splitting the order among warehouses to ensure the complete order can be shipped on time.
