6 KPIs you should have already been tracking in your warehouse

Rapid advances in technology have left little room for errors to be tolerated by today’s customers. RFID technologies, faster data processing, and high-speed connectivity have helped shape new customer expectations, yet fulfilling these expectations without complete operational visibility may be difficult. As more brands move towards partial and full automation, warehouses must track and manage several crucial performance indicators to:

• Spot bottlenecks before they cause downtime
• Reduce inventory misplacements to prevent out-of-stocks
• Adjust to surprise changes in product demand
• Streamline workflows for faster processing and reduced labor costs
• Lower overall operational costs without reducing efficiency

Next-generation visibility solutions can help expand control over your operations, yet in addition to implementation, one must consider which indicators to emphasize. Below are several KPIs warehouses have cited as top priority indicators to track in order to remain competitive in today’s highly digitized age.

1. Cost of Order Processing Per Order – By measuring labor costs per order, you also gain insight into worker productivity and average estimated cycle time.
2. Resource Utilization – From your mobile devices to your docks and storage, every part contributes to overall expenses, which is why it’s crucial to make sure every resource is properly used and maintained to prevent downtime.  
3. Picking Accuracy – With so many businesses offering similar products, order accuracy, and positive customer service have become differentiating factors that can make or break a purchase. As a result, tracking order accuracy provides insight into possible customer retention.
4. Carrying Costs – Stored inventory can lead to either possible revenue or financial loss over time. By tracking carrying costs, you are able to manage low and high-risk inventory, ultimately regulating stock levels.
5. Inventory Turnover – What was cited as one of the most important KPIs, inventory turnover is directly linked to customer demand as you can track how often inventory comes and leaves the warehouse to travel down the supply chain. 
6. Rate of Return – About 51% of customers report abandoning a business after one bad experience. Tracking return and backorder rates can give better insight into how your customers are interacting with your products after purchases are complete.

RFID tracking has become a popular visibility solution gaining traction across several industries; however, despite its high accuracy rates and promising future, it may not be suitable for everyone. Consequently, Avalon’s experts have teamed up with Zebra Technologies in the latest Avalon podcast to shed greater light on the versatility of RFID.

In the event RFID does not sound suitable to your operations, Avalon specializes in many other visibility and identification systems such as:

• Bluetooth Low-Energy  Locationing – More adaptable to smaller budgets, BLE can help locate assets for greater worker productivity, managed device utilization, and less downtime and misplacements. 
• Enterprise-grade Data Capture – As a Zebra Premier Solutions Partner, Avalon provides pretested labels and consumables that retain product information from production to checkout. 
• Versatile Mobile Computers – Modernized mobile computers and enterprise-grade operating systems such as Android OS can help streamline workflows while connecting your workforce in real-time either through high-speed connectivity or push-to-talk capabilities. Access our portfolio to explore all of Zebra’s enterprise-grade mobile computers.

To see how you can expand operational visibility, reach out to our RFID and automation specialists for a free assessment of your workflow, and integrate a future-forward solution tailored to your goals.