Satair, a leading aerospace hardware distributor, recently asked Waer to provide a technology solution that would enable the business to perform a full physical stock count across their warehouses. Put simply, Satair wanted to validate that the physical stock on their shelves was in alignment with the levels shown on their WMS Systems.

What did Waer provide? Waer built a new stand-alone module for their WaerLinx® WMS which ran from the handheld terminals used by the warehouse operatives. The process was simple; the operator scanned a warehouse barcode location, manually counted the stock in that location and entered the total on the scanner. As this information was uploaded to WaerLinx, a number of automated system checks were made; the stock trace was cross-referenced to the in house WMS to ascertain if it was the correct location, the correct amount and in addition, whether it was obsolete and if so, ready to be scrapped? If a discrepancy was found then an alert was triggered and the exception task was handled by the operators.

In addition, the scanned stock amount was simultaneously valued and compared against the £ figure on the parent system. If there was a discrepancy, then an automated write off was activated – depending on a preagreed tolerance. Exceeding the tolerance created an alert and this discrepancy exception was then investigated by an in house expert. WaerLinx also interfaced to the parent WMS and adjusted the stock levels based on the physical count.

This stock count process was carried out whilst the business was still fully operational with no order fulfilment interrupted or postponed. In addition, the stock count module kept a track of each box within the warehouse which meant that no box was double-counted nor missed during the stock count – even if it had been moved between locations in this random location warehouse holding >500,000 part numbers.

Over 40 million items were counted during the project yet the entire process took just 8 weeks. It was estimated that this represented a 75% improvement over a totally manual approach to the project. Satair was delighted and Pete Durose, deputy manager at the main Satair warehouse said, "I thought I would drop you a mail to thank Waer for their help in delivering what was a fantastic product that enabled us to complete the 100% Stock Count project on time and within budget. I would also like to thank you personally for your hard work and professionalism not only in the development of the module, but throughout the entire project. I can honestly say that without Waer, we would not have achieved our target."

So what was the outcome? First, a totally accurate physical stock record within the in-house IT system. Secondly, all obsolescent stock was removed from the systems and scrapped from the stores and lastly, Satair had a clean data set to use in their forthcoming SAP upgrade.

Dave Roberts, Waer's Operations Director who ran the project said, "We are delighted at the way this project went. The solution we built is ideal for handling the arduous task of a total physical stock count and we believe that the approach saves thousands of man hours for our customers."

If you would like to find out more about the AeroScape stock count module or any other inventory collaboration solution then contact David Snelson on 00 44 1903 768 036 or dsnelson@waersystems.com