WMS implementation and usage is different during the pandemic not only for companies using WMS for the first time, but also for warehouse with the software already in place but seeking more creative ways to use the systems.

For more on this blog please read it here.

For many companies, the economic downturn represents both challenges and opportunities. While an immediate fall in client activity may mean a temporary decline in revenue, it also creates the perfect environment for testing and building out systems and processes.

The instant asset write-off eligibility criteria and threshold have changed over time.

From 12 March to 31 December 2020 inclusive, the Instant Asset Write-off threshold for each asset increased to $150,000 (up from $30,000) for business entities with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million).

For more information on the ATO website here.

Disclaimer: This does not constitute tax advice and should not be relied on without seeking independent advice from your tax agent or tax advisor.

Earlier this year at the Acumatica Summit, FoodMaven was announced as Impact Customer of the Year. FoodMaven acknowledged Acumatica's adaptable platform, functionality, and customer emphasis as major reasons for selecting Acumatica cloud ERP.

FoodMaven also use The RIC Group's Warehouse Management Solution called TBO4 with its  organic integration with Acumatica. FoodMaven have deployed the WMS to all locations and it features capturing catch-weight, lot numbers, product grade and expiry date.

Our philosophy is to keep the core clean. This ensures our Warehouse Management Solution (WMS) requires minimal support and with the organic integration to the ERP our customers can implement lean operations to eliminate waste.

Contact us at sales@thericgroup.com for further information.
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Common question our team will get asked is what environment we use to development our Warehouse Management Solution.

The structure of our WMS is we use MVC. MVC stands for Model, View, and Controller and C#. This is using the ASP.NET MVC Architecture. MVC is commonly used for developing modern user interfaces, which our WMS (TBO4) is. It is our fourth generation Supply Chain Solution that we have released over the last 20 years of building best of breed WMS and TMS solutions.

The user interface is then built using ReactJS and Node.js. React allows us to design simple views for each state in our WMS and TMS applications and the biggest benefit is React will efficiently update and render just the right component when your data changes. We know with a browser based application one of the most important points is to ensure rendering performance for the users.

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast and scalable network applications. Our WMS and TMS is real time and uses our API as back end services.

From here our WMS and TMS screens have Kendo UI grid. Kendo UI grid is a powerful widget which allows us to present the data in a table representation. It is fast, light and complete. The Kendo UI grid is used for sorting, paging, searching and more.

If you would like more information on our supply chain solution please email us at sales@thericgroup.com
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Replenishment is typically a task triggered by the need of the picking line. The item is typically picked from a bulk location and replenished to the pick face. The min / max rules are set by the WMS and our Warehouse Management Solution allows users to replenish the pick face while other WMS users are picking.

​For our WMS the Replenishment is released in our Pick Pack Manager. It creates a pick called Replenishment and the users are directed to the bin locations to replenish.
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Standards are very important and this is a great blog by Acumatica on ISV Solution Certification Guidance here.

Recently our update of our Supply Chain Solution includes the ability to display your Power BI dashboard in the framework of the WMS as an Insight Dashboard. Therefore as a user you can modify your own reports, have your KPI's display to the users and have up to date real time dashboards. This workspace can be unique per customer with the dashboards relevant for their business as it is your Power BI workspace which is displayed.

One of the common reports is a heat map for bin locations. It gives warehouse managers a strategy of looking at the efficiency of warehouse layout.

Another report with our FMCG customers is traceability reports. The user look at a batch number and see which supplier it was received from, which movements in the warehouse, and which customers it was supplied too.

Another feature we have added is icons for the quick pick buttons. These icons can be changed by customers as well.

One of the differentiating points of our Warehouse Management Solution is its completely flexible for each customer and each user. When deploying a software project the ability for the software to be flexible and customised is an important key to a successful outcome. 

While we all are navigating the uncertainty of COVID-19, The RIC Group is committed to supporting your business throughout the course of this pandemic and to provide continuity of service at all times.

We realize that in this time of crisis, it is critical that we make it possible for you to continue your operations and help you respond to the unique demands that you may be facing. 

At The RIC Group  we are working to do our part by ensuring the safety of our employees and resources to our customers to help them do their best work while remote.

Please contact us at support@thericgroup.com if you need to raise any support tickets or for urgent support please call us on our support number +61 478 113 932.
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Devices have the ability to display in either portrait or landscape mode. Therefore as developers it should always be a consideration that your software will run by a variety of physical devices and users with different usage patterns. Some devices have physical keyboards and some devices force landscape or portrait mode. Usability must be high and therefore allowing for both orientations needs to be supported by the application.

In a lot of warehouse environments users could be using rugged PDA devices running Android or users may select using tablet devices. Tablet devices are often used on picking trolleys and also are the preferred unit for forklift drivers.

The software you decide to use for your business needs to adapt to the users's orientation. Our WMS and TMS is a browser based application and runs in both portrait and landscape orientation. We understand that clients will use a variety of devices. We have users using rugged devices such as Zebra TC 56, 57 and 52, Honeywell CT 60, CT 40, Cipherlab RS 51, 50 and Point Mobile. There are also users using tablet devices such as Samsung Galaxy Active 2.0, Windows Surface, and iPad's. With our TMS solution we have clients using phone devices such as Samsung and iPhones.

Further information please contact us at sales@thericgroup.com
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There are reasons why you may want to find out who is logged into the Warehouse Management Solution within your organisation and to also have an audit of the user.

Within our Warehouse Management Solution there is a section for User Management. User Management allows you to setup users to user groups. Each user group has its own set of privileges. Customers have the flexibility to setup user group for picking, for receiving, for logistics, for management and so on.

If the user has admin privileges it allows the user to see Active Users. What is really important when looking at active users is knowing which screen they are in and which document the user maybe working on. The TBO4 active user dashboard gives you quite a bit of information and will allow you to see if any users need to be logged off.

The next part to seeing active users is to always ensure the product you are using has a full audit of each user. Here is a picture of our Warehouse Management Solution providing a full audit by date by user for the type. You can audit on all the functions of the WMS such as picking, receiving, putaway, stock transfers, stock adjustments and stocktake.

The next step is to then put the audit information into Intelligent Cloud Insights for your business. To make this happen you really need to ensure your working with a product that has an Open API so you can pull data from the different sources. Once you have the data you can create all the interactive reports using Power BI. Below is a sample from our template we give to our customers free of charge.