We recently spoke with Douglas Hunter, the newly elected chairman of PathGuide’s Latitude Advisory Board (LAB). Douglas is the operations manager at Eldorado Trading Company, and was the original implementation champion at Eldorado when Latitude was first rolled out. He has been a part of the industry for many years, and shared some of his views and advice about getting the most out of Latitude
Why did you join PathGuide’s Latitude Advisory Board (LAB)?
For me, being a LAB member means having stronger insight into the growth of PathGuide’s products and vision plans. It also means having the ability to give feedback from an operational standpoint on areas in need of improvement or presenting ‘outside the box’ ideas that we identify in the day-to-day use of our WMS. The LAB gives power-users of Latitude the ability to brainstorm new concepts with PathGuide’s talented team, in order to continue enhancing an already great product.
What are some of the benefits or unique ways you use Latitude?
Latitude has provided a major improvement to our business in inventory management and in staff performance by increasing accountability and reducing manual steps. Previously, we used our ERP to manage all warehouse inventory operations, which did not give us data in real time or with much detail. Managing inventory and order processing was extremely labor-intensive due to the EPR’s inability to manage inventory in multiple locations, as well as the required time-consuming action of sorting and processing picks on paper.
The customizations that we tend to describe as our game-changers are the automation in order routing by customer type, carrier and FIFO, in a paperless pick environment. We can now manage inventory in real time in multiple locations, instead of our previous practice of using manual reference fields to know secondary or backstock locations. The customization of the LMS Manifesting system offered by PathGuide removed countless manual practices and allowed us to process more orders without adding additional stations or staff. Finally, the ability to add customized reports, alerts, and dashboards has helped us reduce email volume due to manual alerts, and has given us strong visibility down to the team or individual level for performance metrics.
What advice would you give to companies considering a WMS?
Do an ROI plan with strategic growth goals and an analysis of your practices in order to identify the areas needing improvement. Far too often the larger issues are obvious because they are the triggers for your organization’s search for a WMS in the first place. If you are struggling on where to start this analysis, review white papers on warehouse inefficiencies or visit a best-in-class facility to see processes that are stronger than those in your own operations. Examples of some areas to focus on are inventory accuracy, measuring productivity, pick path sequencing, and paper picking.
You should know what your company wants to achieve by adding a WMS to your operations. The benefits of adding Latitude include warehousing visibility improvements and automation. From staff productivity visibility, real-time information on item storage in multiple locations, faster dock to stock in receiving, stronger order release control, a more accurate inventory, customizable manifesting features, or a product that will grow with your company, Latitude can enhance the capabilities of your business and increase your customer’s satisfaction through timely, accurate orders.
You would be hard-pressed to find a better customer service practice in any industry.