DC Velocity - March 2015

what is happening in real time,” says Michael Howes, vice president of software engineering at the integration firm Forte.

2. Counts can be made “opportunistically.” While a “true cycle count” occurs when a worker is specifically tasked with counting all of the items in a specified zone or product line, mobile technology also enables counts to be made “opportunistically”—which occurs when an associate is asked to confirm how much inventory is left at a location where he or she is already working, according to Jeff Ross, vice president of consulting at Forte. A common example is a “zero confirmation,” which occurs when the system shows an order picker has picked the last item in a slot and asks the picker for a simple yes or no confirmation. While opportunistic counts don’t eliminate the need for other kinds of cycle counting, they do reduce overhead and improve asset utilization by allowing workers to conduct counts on the spot instead of making a separate trip. However, Ross suggests that these types of counts only be conducted for “low threshold counts,” which he defines as two items or fewer. “You don’t want the order picker counting 50 items; that would only slow him or her down,” he says.

3. Problems can be researched and resolved more efficiently.

Cycle counting doesn’t end when the count is completed. According to Wheeler, it also involves researching and resolving problems discovered when the count doesn’t match what’s in the warehouse management or execution system. This might involve searching adjacent locations for the product, looking into where else it could be stored, or determining who was the last one to touch it and where it could have gone from there.

Mobile technology, such as a rugged handheld or industrial tablet, can help with this process by sending queries to the WMS to figure out where to look first to solve the problem—and doing it in real time. That’s important because while this search is being carried out, the location will have to be “frozen” (meaning no product can enter or leave), according to Wheeler. “Any time you freeze a location, you are disrupting the flow of materials in the operation and you may be impacting customer orders, so the more quickly you can get things resolved, the better,” he says. Mobile technology can help speed up the process.