Blog Archives

Tightly-coupled vs Loosely-coupled

26/6/2017

I read a fantastic blog on the SAP blog site by Ralph Oliveira. It is all about moving your SAP Business One on-premises solution to cloud. Click here to read the blog by Ralph.

One of the big strengths of SAP Business One is you can deploy it many ways. From hosted on AWS to on-premises on your own server. When deploying an ERP there are times when you need an Add On solution from the ecosystem such as The RIC Group's WMS.

Typical on-premises solutions are what is called tightly-coupled. They are normally interfacing with SAP Business One using the Data Interface (DI) and User Interface (UI) API's. To take some of these solutions to the cloud there are many considerations needed such as resources, security, ports, and can you install other software onto this environment. This becomes very noticeable when you want to install your software on an AWS environment which has many layers of security.

When you are moving to a cloud solution then you need to look at ecosystem for the loosely-coupled approach such as The RIC Group's WMS. Our WMS will allow you to deploy the ERP such as SAP Business One in any environment and our WMS will be able to interface with it using the service layer. This is also true with MYOB Advanced, which runs in the AWS servers in Sydney, and your Add on solution needs to communicate using the REST API. With SAP Business One the service layer is the REST API.

A huge benefit of this approach is providing our customers the ability to deploy new features without changing anything in the ERP such as SAP Business One. When you look into the future and see that there is machine learning, IoT and blockchain, then to secure the future of your business implementing loosely-coupled solutions with your ERP is the right way.

Visibility across entire Supply Chain

19/6/2017

Today's warehouse management now has dramatically improved visibility across the entire supply chain to create a much more efficient warehouse system. Companies using "pull"-based automated warehouse management can hold just the right level of inventory virtually anywhere in the supply chain to smooth out inventory flow, reduce costs, and base decisions on actual demand data, not inaccurate demand forecasts.

With this as well if your warehouse management system uses enterprise mobility then your warehouse operations will be able to achieve higher levels of productivity and profitability. What is enterprise mobility? Enterprise mobility, in simple terms, is a technology direction where employees use mobile devices and cloud services to perform business tasks at any time and anywhere.

One of the biggest benefits enterprise mobility has in the warehouse environment is visibility and trace ability of the supply chain. Enterprise Mobility facilitates real-time data collection and visibility of inventory information, which can largely eliminate inventory errors.

Using a WMS with enterprise mobility is going to give your warehouse workers more immediate access to data and tasks. This is going to reduce execution times and increase their productivity.

With this, you will need to ensure your enterprise mobility devices you implement in the warehouse are robust rugged devices. The rugged devices need to have an IP rating of 65, be splash and dust proof and withstand the daily rigours of being in a warehouse environment.

Multi-Bin for MYOB EXO

15/6/2017

The RIC Group's multi-bin is designed to provide advanced features and make warehouse management easy for MYOB EXO users. A WMS is a key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, put-away and picking.

Our multi-bin for MYOB EXO helps manage the stock within the warehouse or warehouses, and enables seamless link to order processing and logistics management in order to pick, pack and ship products out of the warehouse more efficiently.

The multi-bin has features of bin locations, quantity by bin location, directed picking, primary pick face, bulk bin locations, replenishment, licence plating, KPI reporting, wave batch picking and pack away.

Let me run through some of the setup and features of our multi-bin for MYOB EXO.

With our Multi-Bin for MYOB EXO the first thing the user will need to do is define the bin locations and what sub-level's you would like to define. Our WMS allows up to four sub levels. For example floor, zone, shelf, isle. Setting up your bin locations correctly, helps direct the picker to ensure shortest pick path when picking the sales order. The example of the bin locations is in the picture below of MO-AA-41-1.

The next part to the multi-bin is you can add Zones. For example you may want to setup warehouse zones such as Light, Medium, Heavy. This adds the extra flexibility to allow the picker to pick the heaviest products first and then the lightest products last. Therefore this ensures the warehouse user stacks the pallet correctly when picking.

Once the bin locations are all setup, you can use the warehouse management solution to do a stocktake by bin location to ensure you have accurate quantities by bin.

The next process is using the Pick Pack Manager in the WMS to release sales orders. This can be done by wave as well. The operations manager releases the sales orders for picking and then it will follow each status through the process. Once released the PDA devices can retrieve the sales orders, and pick the correct products for the sales order. Each status will show the operations manager which sales orders are in process of being picked, which sales orders have been parked, which sales orders are getting packed, and which are ready to invoice.

When the sales order has gone through the picking process, the operations manager can then select to invoice the order or orders. This will invoice the selected sales orders in MYOB EXO.

What is important to note is the our multi-bin in MYOB EXO integrates with MYOB EXO in real time. MYOB EXO keeps all the stock on hand figures, however, our multi-bin keeps the quantity by bin figures, as MYOB EXO does not have this feature.

The multi-bin has features of replenishment for primary pick face bins, and also KPI reporting for picker statistics and bin location heat map.

We have our multi-bin WMS implemented at many sites using MYOB EXO and if you would like further information please contact us on [email protected]

Tracking serial numbers and batches with MYOB AccountRight

8/6/2017

With SBO4 PDA a warehouse management solution for MYOB AccountRight, it allows users to track outbound serial numbers or outbound batch numbers on products.

If you are in a business where mandates requires you to maintain accurate records for each unique serial number or batch numbers for sale you can now do this with via The RIC Group's WMS with MYOB AccountRight.

To turn this feature on in the CustomList 3 against the item you can type in S or B. There is also a configuration needed in the back office software. This will trigger the SBO4 PDA software on the PDA device when the user scans the barcode against this item to know that it is serial tracked or batch tracked, and then will enforce the user to scan serial or batch numbers.

When the warehouse user has captured the serial or batch information during the scan picking of sales orders, the information will be sent back to the The RIC Group's WMS. The user will be able to use the Mobile + Centre software to report on the serial or batch numbers which have been captured during the scan pick process.

The second image below displays how Mobile + Centre is used so the user can see that batch number 'fgff' was captured for itemnumber 123 and will also display the itemnumber, sales order and customer this batch number was captured for.

SBO4 PDA is available in SAAS pricing, and uses the REST API to integrate with MYOB AccountRight so all data integrity is kept in MYOB.

The solution is on the MYOB Add On website and The RIC Group has been implementing barcode and data capture solutions for MYOB customers since 2001. We have 100's of MYOB customers in Australia and New Zealand using our Add On solutions to extend the functionality which allows the customer to stay with MYOB AccountRight for the foreseeable future.

Do you use MYOB AccountRight and want to better utilise Inventory Management?

1/6/2017

The RIC Group Blog

Tightly-coupled vs Loosely-coupled

Visibility across entire Supply Chain

Multi-Bin for MYOB EXO

Tracking serial numbers and batches with MYOB AccountRight

Do you use MYOB AccountRight and want to better utilise Inventory Management?

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