CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF STUDY
According to Ebunobi (2012), an inventory control system contains a list of orders to be filled and then prompts workers to pick the necessary items, and provides them with packaging and shipping information. Inventory control may be used to automate sales orders fulfillment process and also manage in and outward material of hardware. The inventory management system is a real time inventory database capable of connecting multiple stores. This can be used to track the inventory of a single store, or to manage the distribution of stock between several branches of a larger franchise. However, the system merely records sales and restocking data and provides notification of low stock at any location through email at a specified interval (Arina Ramlee et al, 2006).
According to Ramaa. A (2012), a warehouse is a facility in the supply chain to consolidate products to reduce transportation cost, achieve economies of scale in manufacturing or in purchasing or provide value added processes and shorten response time. Warehousing has also been recognized as one of the main operations where companies can provide tailored services for their customers and gain competitive advantages. There are various types of warehouses and they can be classified into:
• Production warehouses
• Distribution warehouses
By their roles in in the supply chain they can be classified as raw materials warehouses, work-in-process warehouses, finished good warehouses, distribution warehouses, fulfillment warehouses, local warehouses direct to customer demand and value-added service warehouses. Many of them have different operations however, most of them share some general pattern of material flow, and typical warehouse operations include:
• Receiving
• Put-away
• Internal Replenishment
• Order picking
• Accumulating and sorting
• Packing
• Cross ducking
• Shipping
As businesses grow their warehouse and inventory expands but often the systems in place do not keep up. Inefficiencies from theses antiquated system often go undetected and therefore contain several hidden costs. Warehouse operations need to keep pace with systems and technology that can reduce waste and maximize efficiency.
According to Ramaa. A (2012), a warehouse management system (WMS) primarily aims to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions. A warehouse management system is a database driven computer application, to improve the efficiency of the warehouse by directing cutaways and to maintain accurate inventory by recording warehouse transactions.
1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Today every industrial company has to deal at some point with inventories. Inventory of raw materials, pre-production, process-stock, pieces at any stage of development and finished goods. It is not difficult to see how a warehouse can generate waste. If raw materials are ordered and placed in the wrong location a domino effect of waste takes place. First, those materials are lost so their value is lost. Next, when those lost components are needed, time is wasted by the person looking for them and the production team needing those parts must wait to complete their build.
There are several purposes of having an inventory. The main is to reduce waiting time for the next stage of items which could be the next step on the fabrication process, or customer demand. This project work will focus on the basic ideas behind a warehouse management system but it cannot overcome all of them. These most basic ideas behind a WMS system are as follows:
• Have up-to-date knowledge of what is contained in the warehouse at any time.
• Keep inventory matched to demand
• Reducing redundancy in ordering supplies that are not needed
• Rendering excellent customer service by know what products/supplies are available and can be delivered and at what given time.
1.3. AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The aim of this project work is to design and development a functional computer based application which could be adapted to any real warehouse and could take care of management and automation of its several functions. The objectives of the project are as follows:
• To reduce and organize inventory
• To reduce labour cost
• To increase storage capacity
• To increase customer service
• To increase inventory accuracy
• To process orders per week
• On time shipments/deliveries
• To ensure total asset visibility
1.4. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
• Inventory: A complete list of items such as property, goods in stock, or the contents of a building. It also refers to goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate purpose of resale.
• Warehouse: A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers etc.
• Inventory Management System: An Inventory management system is a computer based system for tracking inventory levels, orders, sales and deliveries. It can also be used in the manufacturing industry to create a work order, bill of materials and other production-related documents.
• Information Management System: This is a general term for software designed to facilitate the storage, organization and retrieval of information.
• Database: This refers to a large store of related data on a computer that a user can access and modify.
• Warehouse Management System: A software application that supports the day-to-day operations in a warehouse.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Pages
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of content vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of study…………………………………………………… 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem …………………………………….………….. 3
1.3 Aim and Objectives……………………………………………………… 4
1.4 Definition of Keywords……………………………………………….. 4
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Concept of Warehousing…………………………………………………6
2.2 Need for Warehousing…………………………………………………...8
2.3 Type of Warehouses ………………………………………………….....9
2.4 Private and Public Warehousing ……………………………………… 11
2.5 Functions of a Warehouse ……………………………………… 12
2.6 Issues of Warehousing …………………………………........... 13
CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
3.1 Methodology …………………………………………………….. 17
3.2 The Paper- based System ………………………………………… 17
3.3 Limitation of the Existing System ……………………………….. 18
3.4 System Design …………………………………………………….. 18
3.5 System Flowchart ………………………………………………….. 22
CHAPTER FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING
4.1 Development Tools ……………………………………………. 24
4.2 System Requirements ……………………………………………… 24
4.3 Implementation ………………………………………………………..26
4.4 Testing …………………………………………………………………27
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary …….……………………………..……………………….. 32
5.2 Recommendations…………………………………………………… 32
5.3 Conclusion ………………….……………………………………….. 33
APPENDIX …………………………………………………………….. 34
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………… 63
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig 3.4 Web Architecture …………………………………………………19
Fig 3.5 System Flow Chart .......................................................................23
Fig 4.3 Implementation of Program Design ...……………………………27