ANN: Changes on the eStockCard Live Support

Greetings from Chronos eStockCard inventory software.


We wish to announce that as part of our website revamp to serve our customers better via our Live Chat Support, we have moved it inside the Client Center.

Therefore, in order to contact us via our Live Support, please click here to login to the Client Center.

And as part of our commitment to our customers due to the different time zone, we are happy to inform that you could let us know in advance if you would like our support team to be on Standby to answer your queries after our office hours. Just email back to us at support@estockcard.com or leave a message on our Live Support with your contact name, email details, company name and the GMT time.

If you have any other queries about this changes, feel free to contact us. Thank you and have a nice weekend.

Warehouse Management System

In a recent post on Warehouse Management Systems Guide (http://www.warehousemanagementsystemsguide.com/), Luciano Cunha, Global Industry Director at To-Increase outlined important steps to justification, deployment and implementation of a modern warehouse management system (WMS).

The investments are heavily scrutinized, so arming yourself with the correct planning, figures and resources is important in acquiring a budget and a green light on the decision once your evaluation has been completed.

He feels that a successful process is determined by the following three steps: -

1) Rationalize the purchase. Create a report that shows how warehouse errors and inefficient picking processes are leading to revenue loss. Show that while it will take a large investment to deploy a new solution, that the return on investment will be high.

2) Match product to workflow. Evaluate solutions that mirror your current workflow, not ones that completely change how you have ever run your warehouse. Ensure that the solutions you are investigating match the type of picking you need (e.g., zone picking, wave picking, etc) to ensure successful implementation.

3) Allocate resources for proper training. Oftentimes, warehouse managers fail to consider the costs and importance of proper training for a new solution roll-out. Managers can justify this by showing the time spent correcting mistakes or on manual entry, and how a new solution will improve these processes. This is an important final step of the justification.

For more on this topic and additional resources on warehouse management systems, check out: Three Steps to Justifying a WMS Budget

 

Something Great to Share in this Christmas – Welcome the New Chronos eStockCard v3.1.3

It’s December (finally), the most joyous month of the year. We are excited because the Christmas and New Year are around the corner.

After a few months of hard work, the eStockCard Team is glad to present to our customers and users with the latest version of Chronos eStockCard v3.1.3. As usual, we continuously improving our eStockCard Inventory Software to make it better and better as this is our passion and commitment towards our product. We sincerely hope eStockCard will benefit everyone in the business as well as solving all their inventory issues.

In this new version, we have done quite a number of enhancements and bug fixing. Furthermore, we would also like to take this opportunity to thank the customer and users who had contributed their great ideas in this release. Please refer to the enhancement and bug fix list as below:-

 

Enhancements:

  1. Able to select the different types of documents to be print out from the Sales and Purchase Module screen.
  2. Current items quantity can be viewed from the Sales Quotation screen when adding the items.
  3. Able to custom info column in the Customer Master Maintenance and add them in the Sales Quotation and Sales Invoice screen.
  4. To reprint the barcode label for items which are no longer in stock.
  5. Printer overwrite function for the user to use different type of printer at different workstation PC.
  6. Adding a check box for the Alert Event message.

 

Bug Fixed:

  1. All the dock panel screen function properly.
  2. The Ship To address can be viewed/printed out in the Sales module.
  3. The format date for label reprint to print date only.
  4. Solve the load of the grid issue for intercompany.
  5. The location message blow up when there are no locations available in the Location Master Maintenance screen.
  6. Default Currency Setting.

If you encountered any issue with this release, feel free to inform us at support@estockcard.com. Thank you.

Good Warehousing Practices in Pharmaceuticals

Proper warehousing means storing supplies so that products are always available, accessible, and in good condition.

To make sure drugs are not damaged while they are being stored, follow the guidelines and some good practices:-

Clean and disinfect the storage area regularly. No food, drink, gum, tobacco, trash cans in the warehouse and storage area. Personal items are to be kept in designated areas.

 

Record all inbound drugs’ temperatures. Inspect all incoming for spillage and packing condition. If seals are present on the incoming supplies, the seal number should be checked against the seal number on the bill of lading, delivery order to ensure that they are matched.

 

Inspect empty cases, racks and pallets for rodent, insect activity or odors.

 

Store supplies in a dry, well-lit, well and adequate air ventilation, and out of direct sunlight. Make sure no water can leak into the storage area. Report all spilled and damaged cases, racks, guardrails immediately to warehouse executive or supervisors.

 

Proper designated storage areas for “High-risk” drugs, Refrigerated/Frozen zone for “Low-temperature” drugs. Make sure no personal food or drink in the freezer/coolers and make sure the doors closed at all times.

 

Make sure storage cases, racks have adequate clearance off the floor, away from the walls and from other stacks, height constrains. Make sure have sufficient space for inspection and cleaning.

 

Arrange the cartons so that the identification labels and expiration dates or manufacturing dates are visible.

 

Store the drugs in a manner accessible for First-to-Expire, First-Out distribution.

 

Store drugs separately, away from insecticides, chemicals, old files, office supplies, and other materials.

 

Separate and dispose of damaged or expired drugs without delay, according to local and donor regulations.

 

Assure proper security.

 

Make sure fire safety equipment is available and accessible.

 

Wash hands after using rest rooms.

Inventory Management in Pharmacy Industries by eStockCard Inventory Tracking Software

The most vital concerns of pharmacy industries today are improving inventory management processes particularly in the batch and expiry tracking. These include the following processes:-

Inventory Tracking is important in pharmacy industry.

1. Batch Management

The inventory system is able to let users to enter different prices and expiry for different batches.

 

2. Expiry Management

System will allow user to enter manufacturing and expiry date for the item during the receiving or stock IN. For about-to-expire items, the inventory tracking software must trigger and alert the user before they are expired so that proper actions or counter-measures can be taken.

 

3. Disposal Management

The system does not allow to sale the items that already expired through LOCK function and further actions such as remove from storage rack or return to manufacturer for exchange.

 

4. Location Management

The inventory management software will direct the user which location to be stored during put-away or which specific location to be located for picking as per dictated by expiry policies.

 

5. Stock or Inventory Analysis

Demand pattern (Seasonal or ad-hoc), Stock Movement (Fast, Slow or Not Moving), History of items (Quality, Recall), Expiry (Already Expired, Near to expire, Number of days before expire)

 

6. Real-time Information

Always provide with up-to-date stock information about quantity, expiry, batch, location.

How eStockCard Inventory Software helps to control the inventory for chemical industry?

In the past, we have been helping many Small Industries to improve their inventory control (in raw materials, WIP and finished goods). And Inventory control in Chemical industry is very interesting and challenging.


Chemical Materials are having:-

  1. Shelf life limitation — i.e. its expiry date must be monitored closely.
  2. FIFO control – i.e. to use the old batches first. But the challenge here is, there are so many SKUs (or products), all are very similar in packaging, color, size, the only different is Part No. (or item code), how to ensure the operators/users are picking the right drum according to FIFO?
  3. Batch Tracking — all received/produced materials are having different manufacturing information such as batch no, lot no, manufacturing date, special remark etc. This info is crucial for user to feedback to their supplier if having quality problems or to track the actual processes if receive of feedback from customers.
  4. Multi-UOM conversion — e.g. from Drum to Bag, bag to Kg, Kg to Liter, Drum to liter etc. Any combination can be happened.

1st – Relayout the physical storage area

  • so that “Each Inventory Item” can be stored neatly and accessible.
  • Warehouse control operator can put and pick the right inventory item without being blocked by other items.
  • If operators need to move away other items first before reaching the right item, most likely they will pick others without following the FIFO control rule.

2nd – To track EACH inventory item in details via unique serialize no. or batch no.

  • During goods receiving (IN), print a barcode label with uniqued serialized no. / batch no. assigned, and paste this barcode label to the received item.
  • During good issuing (OUT), remember to scan and record the uniqued serial no./ batch no.
  • In this way, all inventory movements are being tracked easily.

3rd – To install an “easy-to-use” Warehouse Inventory Control Software to facilitate the goods movement control.

  • We did try many manual systems to achieve the above controls, but all are failed due to tedious recording and tracking, human errors etc.
  • Complex system does not work here because most of input data are done by warehouse operators who don’t like complicated stuffs.
  • A simple warehouse control system, yet powerful enough that

a) can track item serial no./batch no.,
b) embedded with FIFO/LIFO logics during picking,
c) with location bin control,
d) can inter-convertable multiple unit-of-measurement (UOM) for same item but in different packing,
e) and most important, system can provide suggestion to the warehouse operator
– where to store the item during goods receiving, and
– where to pick the right item during goods issuing/picking.

Finally, the Chronos eStockCard Inventory Control Software achieves all…

eStockCard v3 Warehouse Inventory Software in Mobile Phone Industry

eStockCard inventory tracking software has been promoted and launched to several mobile phone retailers to manage their repairing, selling activities as well as tracking inventories movement. Here are the major scopes how eStockCard inventory software can help.

1. Repairing

When received the phone from your customer, you can assign the Operation Task as “Hand phone Repair” and key in any required details (such as the serial nos and etc). All this is can be done under IN operation. A bar code label can be generated to stick on the hand phone.

After repairing and the customer come to collect the hand phone, just scan the bar code label and confirm to take out the hand phone. You can also define the Operation Task as ” Repairing Works”. This can be done under the OUT operation.

2. Customer Booking

For hand phone which is being reserved after receiving down payment, you can use the LOCK operation to LOCK it. If there is any code to unlock the hand phone, you can also key in this info at the Remark column under the LOCK operation.

Once the hand phone is ready to sell, just use the UNLOCK operation and select the required hand phone. The code will be appeared under the Remark column and just click on the ‘ Pick and Unlock’ button to take out the hand phone from the system instead of going through the OUT operation again.

3. Selling Phones and Accessories

Using the OUT operation and configure the Operation Task as ” Selling to Customer” and select the items and the system will advise the location (You can also defined your customers) and then key in the quantity and confirm to retrieve the items out.

However, if you have a bar code which is generated by the eStockCard during IN operation when you received hand phone or accessories from your main distributors, just scan on the bar code and then confirm the quantity to retrieve the items.

There are about 38 reports in the eStockCard inventory software which is useful for tracking and monitoring on all your handphone inventory and their movements.

Download the Free Inventory Software here today.

Good Warehousing Practices

Good and adequate warehousing practices will ensure

1. Products are always be accessible

2. Products are always in good condition

3. Products are always available

With years of experiences in this field, we would like to share industry best practices with our customers and those who are keen to improve their productivity in warehousing management.

Please stay on the watch for coming articles. You are welcome to share your views with us in order to make things better.

Use eStockCard to control your Stock Card

Stock card is a piece of thicker and more durable paper which is widely used in many small and mid-sized organizations with the simple purpose of monitoring and controlling their stock. It is a very simple inventory control tool for recording the movement of the stock.

No arguable it is very simple and lowest cost but there are many drawbacks:-

1.Wear and Tear

2. Data discrepancy due to no updating, wrongly or unrecognized writing etc

3. Data can’t be shared simultaneously

4. Can’t locate the card due to misplace

5. No analysis, No reporting and can’t provide overall view of stock status

6. …..

 

eStockCard has encompassed most of the functionalites and features that deliver by traditional stock cards and additionally, more useful and intelligent features are included to achieve better control.

 

eStockCard can be used to control your Stock Cards

Inventory Management in Showroom

It is very common for many firms to setup small-scale showrooms in various territories or geographical locations to display their products or samples to potential clients. The major challenge in managing showroom is the effectiveness of managing  samples or showcases.


Most encountered issue is the failure of tracking the samples or showcases. These include:-

1. Failure to identify the point of issuing. Samples could be sent from manufacturing facilities, other warehouse or directly from vendors or suppliers.

2. No serialization (unique identifier is needed for each sample especially from different suppliers or vendors) and this will result in poor identification.

3. Expiry management. This is critical for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical samples. About-to-expire or expired samples may need to be purged for disposal or downgrading.

4. Inaccurate inventory data or data synchronization issue.

 

For users who are using Chronos eStockCard inventory management software, showroom can be managed at ease:-

1. Create a pseudo warehouse (storage area) which is known as “Showroom” under location setting.

2. Use Stock Transfer module to move the items from Main Warehouse to Showroom. Alternate way, user can create a Picking List at Picking List Module or OUT operation to retrieve items from Main Warehouse and then follow by IN operation to store these items to Showroom.

3. Each sample with be assigned with unique identifier (eStockCard serial number) for tracking purpose and their shelf life can be monitored through Alert Module.

4. Auxiliary information such as vendors or suppliers information (batch, lot, delivery notes, invoice’s number) can be entered.

5. Cycle counting activities can be performed through Cycle Count module to verify inventory data accuracy.