At the beginning of the year, returns skyrocket after the holidays, inventory is due and everything feels out of control. Employees are overworked and picking errors become more frequent. But don’t worry, with the right warehouse management software and strategy, you can take a more relaxed approach to the start of the year. Let’s take a look at what exactly leads to success and how we can help you with the various functions of our JTL-WMS warehouse management software.
Webinar on 20.03.2025, 14-15 o’clock
JTL-WMS live: How to optimize your warehouse for maximum efficiency!
Typical challenges in large warehouses at the start of the year
In addition to the usual day-to-day business, the employees also have to manage the wave of returns after Christmas and the inventory. The employees are working to the limit and yet there are still delays. As a result, delivery times are getting longer and the pressure is increasing. This not only causes dissatisfaction among customers, but also within the team.
Inventory often reveals stock discrepancies that delay sales orders. Shortages and duplicate reorders increase costs and waiting times. In addition, inventory has to be carried out in parallel with day-to-day business and additional staff require training.
Returns pile up in the first half of the year, and the potential for errors increases as sales orders rise. Incorrect or incomplete deliveries lead to complaints – this costs money, time and can damage your reputation.
Is your company growing, but the warehouse is still at the technological level it was three years ago? Without optimized processes, bottlenecks arise because manual processes, long search times and inefficient order preparation reduce productivity.
Optimal warehouse? Your JTL service partner can help!
The key to an efficient warehouse in high-performance phases lies in a well thought-out warehouse concept that is tailored to the requirements of your products, ordering processes and the local conditions of your warehouse. Conversely, this means that there is no such thing as a standard solution. Before you start thinking about suitable software, you should have a clear idea of your daily processes. Grab your most experienced team member and ask them: Are the routes short or long? Do the sales orders involve many small or a few large products? Are they expensive and fragile or cheap and unbreakable? Are there many item variations or bundles? How many floors does the warehouse have? This planning and design phase can take time, but it’s worth the investment! Numerous JTL service partners are at your side here. From years of practical experience, they know which aspects need to be considered in the analysis process and will support you during implementation.
Do you have general questions about the possibilities and potential of JTL-WMS? Then please contact us directly! We will be happy to help you.
That's why JTL-WMS can adapt perfectly to your warehouse
As with many solutions in the JTL ecosystem, the development process of the software itself demonstrates its greatest strength. In line with the principle of community-driven development, our team of programmers thoroughly surveyed online retailers from a wide range of industries about the most common use cases for warehouse work. The result: individually configurable shipping processes that can be combined and automated according to requirements, as well as intuitive operation that even warehouse newcomers can learn quickly.
ERP system as a real time control center
Good WMS is not an isolated solution, but works with your ERP. That’s why we integrated JTL-WMS seamlessly with our ERP system JTL-Wawi right from the start. The two Applications use the same data basis so that every stock movement can be viewed in both systems. JTL-Wawi processes orders, while JTL-WMS maps the delivery of goods. This means that many things can be controlled from the office, whether you want to prioritize urgent sales orders or make partial deliveries. This gives you a complete overview at all times.
Five shipping processes according to requirements
The shipping processes of JTL-WMS provide a framework for ideal warehouse processes depending on the product and warehouse size. It doesn’t matter whether your sales orders consist of a few high-priced items or many low-priced ones, whether you need best-before dates or work with batches. There is also a suitable shipping process for several small warehouses or a large one with mobile packing tables – and the best thing is that they can be combined with each other as required.
Optimizes individual orders with few items through collective picking and efficient routes. Dispatch takes place with just one scan. All shipping documents are created automatically and the customer receives a shipping confirmation immediately.
Perfect for orders with multiple items and warehouses with separate picking and packing processes. Multiple sales orders are picked at the same time in a route-optimized manner using collective picking. Particularly suitable for companies with several picking areas.
Ideal for small and large items, with or without labeling. The picking list is route-optimized through the warehouse, while numbered shipping boxes are filled directly on a picking trolley. Each item is scanned, sorted and packed ready for dispatch – for error-free, fast processes.
Ideal for large individual orders, palletized goods or small, fast-moving items. The picking and packing process takes place directly at the storage location using a mobile packing table. Shipping labels are printed automatically after the last scan.
Perfect for bundles and fast-moving items: shipping labels, invoices and delivery bills are created in a single step. Identical orders are picked and packed at the same time, eliminating intermediate steps. Ideal for high shipping volumes.
Automation instead of chaos
Modern warehouse management systems automate many tasks. JTL-WMS does this with a stringent if-then logic. For example, as soon as the warehouse employee has scanned the last item on the pick list, the software triggers the shipping label printout. The same applies to the delivery bill and the shipping notification to the customer.
AutostoreSystems: Maximum efficiency with the same storage space
Large warehouses that are constantly operating at full capacity rely on the AutostoreSystems extension. It enables an almost fully automated picking process with the help of robot technology and, thanks to the cube storage principle, can increase storage capacity fourfold with the same amount of space – in times when storage space is becoming increasingly expensive, such technology is worth its weight in gold. The goods-to-person principle automatically brings items to the picking station, which speeds up processes enormously. Thanks to intelligent sorting based on the Pareto principle, the system prioritizes frequently used items and optimizes routes. Seasonal peaks can be intercepted more quickly thanks to the robot technology. As a natively integrated extension of JTL-WMS, AutostoreSystems can be set up unbeatably quickly, not least in around six months. Other comparable systems take up to a year to be fully operational.
Optimized routes and random warehousing
Random warehousing optimizes routes and saves time by storing items in the next available location and picking them via route-optimized pick lists. JTL-WMS knows the exact position of each item and enables fast, efficient commissioning – especially in multiple picking areas. As every item is available in every zone, there is no need to merge multiple pick lists. This method ensures shorter routes.
Good usability: touch-optimized and mobile
At our JTL-Connect trade fair, we experience it again and again in the JTL-WMS demo warehouse, where you can test our warehouse management software: even without picking experience, it can be operated within ten minutes. The touch-optimized user interface of JTL-WMS was specially developed for the requirements in the warehouse. Color-coded displays, large information windows and warning tones guide warehouse employees through the process and provide immediate feedback if something is wrong. JTL-WMS Mobile also makes the entire warehouse mobile: storage, transfer, commissioning and shipping are visible in real time. The app works on Android, iOS and Windows Phone and is compatible with tablets, smartphones or MDEs. All warehouse movements can be recorded in real time using mobile scanners or tablets.
And that’s not all! JTL-WMS features at a glance
The success story of Genuss Berlin shows that a change of system pays off!
Stories of advancement such as that of Genuss Berlin show that switching to suitable warehouse management software pays off sooner rather than later. Since using JTL in stock at the Berlin sweets retailer, the error rate has not only fallen to almost zero percent. The employees are also packing twice as many orders with half as many staff.
“We previously had an error rate of 4% – that was huge! We didn’t even manage 500 parcels a day. Today, we have an error rate of almost 0%,” says co-founder Darius Okra. The onboarding of new employees also works smoothly: “We train people in about 20 minutes and thanks to all the control mechanisms via the bar code scanners, you can’t really make any mistakes. In addition to traditional online store sales, the team now also wants to tackle sales via marketplaces.
You can watch the complete success story of Genuss Berlin on video or in the blog post:
The more sophisticated the storage concept, the more relaxed the start to the year
The more well thought-out the warehouse processes are, the better the basis for successful trading. Our recommendation: Even if it can be a lot of work alongside your day-to-day business, think about it before inefficient warehouse processes put the brakes on your growth spurt. The more successful you are with your trade, the higher your requirement to scale will be sooner or later. And when things have to happen quickly, it’s usually already too late. Whether you are thinking about process optimization or looking for a scalable solution for your growing warehouse – a modern WMS can be the game changer, especially at the beginning of the year!
