FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITYHO CHI MINH CITY CAMPUS ---***---MID-COURSE INTERNSHIP REPORT Major: International Business Economics THE PROCESS OF APPLYING WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO OPER
INTRODUCTION OF SMARTLOG SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
General information about Smartlog Supply Chain Solutions Corporation
- Company name: Smartlog Supply Chain Solutions Corporation
- Founder & CEO: Do Huy Binh (Kurt Binh)
Smartlog is a startup company founded by Mr Do Huy Binh, an alumnus of Foreign Trade University in Hanoi campus He studied Logistics, Materials and Supply Chain Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US together with the Malaysian Institute of Supply Chain Management
Smartlog is a pioneer in Vietnam in developing information technology solutions for logistics operations It is a LaaS enterprise that deeply understands customers, with a flexible customization system suitable for all sizes Founded in January 2015, with just a team of less than 20 people, in the next 9 months, Smartlog focused on building the necessary basic features, based on actual operations at Vietnamese companies, and launched the first product, TMS system By the beginning of the first quarter of 2017, there were about 20 customers deploying the TMS system, a very solid momentum in the early years of the company's establishment At the end of the first quarter of 2017, WMS system was officially launched, marking an important milestone in building the foundation for the future Smartlog ecosystem As a result, in June 2018, Smartlog officially launched the leading Artificial Intelligence technology and gradually developed Machine Learning Besides AI technology, with a clear orientation, the company also invested in researching and building a transport exchange system for Vietnamese market. Near the end of 2018, Smartlog succeeded and launched the first Transportation Exchange system in Vietnamese market, and firmly affirmed its leading position to revolutionize the Logistics industry in Vietnam In 2019, Smartlog became the only Logtech Vietnam company to be honored with Sao Khue Award and once again became the only Logtech Vietnam company to be honored with Sao Khue Award 2020 with WMS product.
1.1.2 Vision, mission and field of activities
Smartlog aims to alter the way that logistics operations are conducted in accordance with the trend of the industrial revolution 4.0, thanks to a team of committed individuals who are extremely knowledgeable about supply chain management, thereby assisting customers to increase operation and service effectiveness. With the goal of creating an environment where businesses can collaborate, optimize resources, and boost competitiveness, Smartlog works with Vietnamese enterprises to establish their logistics networks, to help Vietnamese companies compete at the regional level, first and foremost in their "home market" of Vietnam
The warehouse management system of Smartlog (WMS) is a system that applies intelligent algorithms to optimize the operation process of warehouses and distribution centers to monitor and operate more easily Additionally, it will offer the most precise real-time inventory updates (series number, lot number), as well as integration with warehouse automation systems like light picking, robots, and auto-forklifts, and a mobile app for shippers, supervisors, and clients.
Warehouse management solution is an ideal choice for logistics management businesses, using for fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), food (F&B),pharmaceuticals (Pharmacy), chemicals (chemicals), electronics (Electronic), textiles(Garment),…
Source: Smartlog profile in its official website gosmartlog.com
The transportation management system of Smartlog (TMS) is end to end system applied for all daily operations of a transport business, from receiving orders to coordinating and monitoring journeys through the system and applications installed in cell phone for the drivers, instead of traditional operation with complex process and documents TMS manages and controls the entire transportation process such as planning, coordinating, monitoring, updating information and documents and recording all transactions in real time
Source: Smartlog profile in its official website gosmartlog.com
The Smartlog Transport exchange system (STX) is a service platform that connects between carriers and owners The system will help carriers with empty vehicles to connect with owners who own goods needed to carry By using this system, businesses can reduce freight costs, avoid empty vehicles, and all cases that owners cannot find the available carriers, which ensure the constant circulation of the goods
Source: Smartlog profile in its official website gosmartlog.com
The Smartlog container optimization system (COS) is the company's latest product, which is a platform providing for shipping lines to offer container optimization solutions for 3PLs, shippers and vehicle owners Currently, the company is in the contract of developing products exclusively with CMA CGM The values that the system brings are:
- MT RE-USE: Save on empty lifting costs and cut travel time to the depot by reusing containers.
- MT MOVE: Increases the ability to transport goods with empty containers before reaching the empty receiving/returning location.
- MT RENTAL: Increase cargo capacity by bringing empty containers to a marketplace.
1.1.3 Organization structure and human resources
Throughout 7 years of establishment and growth, Smartlog has gradually expanded its human resource structure with 8 departments created with clearly-defined objectives and expertise Since Smartlog is a technology firm that specializes in offering solutions in the fields of Logistics and Supply chain, it must make sure that it has adequate administrative departments as well as human resources in these areas Despite having only
5 employees when it first began, Smartlog ‘s employees today are approximately 200 individuals at its headquarters in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
Figure 1.5 Smartlog Human Resource Report
Overall, young and proactive employees aged 21-30 account for the majority of Smartlog ‘s human resources During the period of 3 years from 2019 to 2020, total number of employees increased by about 1.2 times, with 24 new employees hired and 5 seniors quitted However, post Covid times, the company began its journey to restructure both operation and human resources for scale-up purpose Therefore, a new department was established named PDD, focusing on analysing and developing the system, and about
45 new employees hired during the year of 2021 to take on a number of important projects
It is clear from the statistics from the tables and charts that Smartlog's revenue appears to have increased over time Despite the Covid-19 pandemic's significant effects and challenges in Vietnam's supply chain sector, the company nonetheless generated optimistic industry revenue in 2019 and 2020: Smartlog made 25.6 billion VND in revenue in 2019, and by 2020, this figure had climbed by 21.31 percent When compared to the same period in 2020, revenue in 2021 climbed by 30.23%, reaching almost 40 billion dong The data also demonstrates that although though costs make up a significant share, they are always lower than revenues realized This demonstrates that the business
9 performance of the company over the past three years has resulted in positive earnings In terms of profit, Smartlog has shown consistent growth over the past three years Smartlog made a profit of roughly 1.6 billion VND in 2019, but by 2021 that sum had nearly risen to 3 billion VND Profit growth for Smartlog climbed by 31.8 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 and by 39.86 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, both of which are noticeably faster rates of growth than revenue or cost growth This demonstrates that the company's business plan is working effectively and increasingly asserting its position in the currentVietnamese market.
Summary of the internship
1.2.1 Introduction of intern department structure
Currently, SID Department consists of 1 Head of Operations and 4 teams responsible for 4 different activities: Warehousing Solution, Warehouse Technical support, Transportation Solution, Transportation Technical support Each team will consist of more than 10 people, managed by a separate leader under that team
During the internship period at Smartlog in the position of Solution and Implementation Intern at the Warehousing Solution team from July 4, 2022 to August 7,
2022, the author had the chance to interact with an actual working environment, learn about the structure, and operation of the company In the first two weeks, leader of Warehousing Solution team provided the author with documents associated with logistics industry and operation guide for WMS system At that time, the author was approached and given direct instructions for the responsibilities listed below:
- Understand company's departments, especially SID, PDD, and AID
- Learn how to apply WMS system to logistics operations
- Understand features and fundamental logic of WMS systems through 12 intense trainings
From this process, the author has a better understanding of WMS systems as well as how to config and operate it with the operation process at the warehouse and the needs of the customer During the next three weeks, the author was directly involved in the
10 company's project to support and learn more about the actual process, as well as the coordination process between departments to create the right product such as:
- Field survey and design solutions for customers
- Collaborate with PDD and AID to check the validity of solutions, post the request booked and work with SDD to test, check and ready for quality assurance
- Implement Tobe workshop and UAT (User Acceptance Testing) for customers.
- Support Golive for each customer related to actual operation and management
THE PROCESS OF APPLYING WMS IN OPERATING
General process of applying WMS in warehouse activities
Figure 2.7 WMS application in warehouse diagram
This is the main process that actually operates in warehouse Goods entering the warehouse go through 3 main modules: Inbound - Inventory - Outbound In which, each module includes many large functions inside, thereby forming the corresponding WMS system with flexibility in customizing for each customer ‘s warehouse layout as well as operation tactic
Inbound: Receiving and Put-away
Outbound: Picking, Packing and Shipping
WMS also helps businesses to keep strict control of the inbound-outbound process, manage the inventory more easily, and reduce human resources by automatically update many transactions and warehouse management status on the system
This is the most important step in the whole application process because it will decide the strategies and the task logics that WMS system can integrate with SAP system and SOP (Standard operating procedures) of Thien Long Group At this step, we do a field survey to understand the actual operation in 2 types of Thien Long ‘s warehouses:
12 raw material and finished goods such as inbound and outbound process, item data, strategies for putaway, allocation, picking, packing and shipping After understanding the actual activities and procedures, we define warehouse requirements and generate solutions using WMS system to improve warehouse efficiency In detailed, we collect the information:
Over 300 owners ID and 7 warehouses ID
Customers and Customer groups (MT, GT, Export, E-commerce)
Receipt types and Order types
Integrated flows and types between SAP and WMS
- Implement by: Thien Long Warehouse supervisors and SID team
- Documents: We need to complete two documents including To-Be Blueprint (solutions for Thien Long applied WMS system) and Configuration set-up (master data, receipt types, order types, necessary strategies for replenishment, put-away and allocation.)
Understand Thien Long warehouse processes thoroughly, enabling effective solutions and suitability with SOP
Minimize errors during master data set-up due to collaboration with Thien Long warehouse supervisors
Ensure the precision for integration flows and types
Take long time and involved labor due to discussions and survey arrangements between involved parties
With a huge number of SKUs, customers and owners, uploading excel data with
500 lines limitation each upload becomes difficult and time-costing
After setting up all the master data as well as the fact that WMS environment forThien Long is ready for actual operation, the whole warehouse process will be conducted
13 with the first step: Receiving the goods Goods at Thien Long Group are divided into two types: raw-material for production and finished goods for sales Therefore, in the warehouse, there are two different zones for each good, and we also have different types of receiving the goods For raw material, it is necessary to conduct QM (Quality management) before Goods Receipt because those are goods from suppliers and outside processors Raw material will be packed as pallets, so we will choose receiving strategy as Received by Pallet However, for finished goods, because they are produced at Nam Thien Long factories, so there is no need to check the quality by QM, but still use strategy Received by Pallet There are three main steps to receive the goods:
Firstly, we need to create PO (Purchase Order) on WMS system at view Receipt, then clicking button to create ASN or uploading excel files using available template of the system to create many ASNs at one time
Information needed to be filled according to Thien Long Group: o Warehouse owner, Receipt type, Customer PO, Item Code o Expected Quantity, Manufacturing date, Expiry date, Batch/ Lot
Currently, to optimize processes of Thien Long which use SAP system for enterprise resource planning or create both POs and ASNs in their inbound process, WMS system has added new button which can integrate signal to generate ASN automatically from PO.
Conducting Quality management (for raw material)
Thien Long QM team is in charge of checking and controlling the quality Once results appear, SAP transmits the signal to WMS system to update the status of goods. Status of goods will include three types: OK, Not OK, QA (recheck quality if Thien Long request)
After creating successfully ASN, users will receive the signal on Mobile App, which is much more convenient for them on their way to load and unload pallets or cases inside
14 warehouse At here, users scan pallet ID and accept to receive to Stage – a separate zone for waiting goods
- Implement by: Thien Long Warehouse users and QM team
- Documents: Goods Receipt and Inbound checking list
Update real-time transaction, and involve less labor in the whole process
Control the right quantity and quality of the received goods
Sometimes, if WMS system malfunctions for a period of time, users must manually operate, and this may lead to wrong receiving procedure, or even stock shrinkage.
Thien Long must supervise strictly the operation users to make sure that the receiving procedure is applied appropriately, to ensure the precise data of the system
After goods are received into zone Stage, the next step is to put away them to their right zones set by put-away strategies For Thien Long, raw materials are put into Raw material zone, and finished goods are put into GT/MT zone WMS system will base on Logical location/ Order set up in Master data to suggest suitable locations for each type of goods Once goods status is fully received, orders will automatically exist on Put-away view on handheld for users to put-away goods in the right location
In conjunction with put-away, Thien Long users also use handheld printer applied WMS system to print availably customized pallet label designs as well as pallet IDs for warehouse operations This defines the identity of the goods, and helps users to recognize each good with necessary information easily
- Implement by: Thien Long Warehouse users
- Documents: Pallet labels and pallet IDs
Update real-time put-away process.
Fast and convenient with location suggestion, thus users do not need to remember warehouse layouts as well as ensure goods put into right locations
Sometimes, if system malfunctions for a period of time, users have to manually operate, and this may lead to wrong put-away procedure, or even stock shrinkage.
The inventory management module is one of the most important modules of the WMS system Here users can control the amount of inventory available in the warehouse through the Inventory List and Inventory Reports To catch the information related to daily inventory, users can search on Detail Storage view There, users choose the period of time (from which date to which date), and the system will filter and load all data including inventory pieces, cases and pallets each day
Depending on Thien Long demands for different kinds of stock count, WMS system offers many types: Full count by location, Stock count, Stock change in date and Location all, for Thien Long users to choose and config the post stock options under their purposes Then, operation users will use handheld to conduct the stock count process, data users can check the results on WMS system In addition, when there is a deviation between the actual stock and the system, the users can use Adjustment function to adjust data on the system as well as refer to Transaction function to look into the users’ operation history on WMS to define wrong transactions leading to inventory deviation
- Implement by: Thien Long operation users and data users
- Documents: Pallet labels and pallet IDs
Ensure the whole inventory management operating effectively and be able to adjust inventory based on actual operation
Accelerate the stock count process and update real-time transaction
Sometimes, if system malfunctions for a period of time, users have to manually operate, and this may lead to wrong stock-count process
Inventory reports cannot be customized for each owner
Procedure Evaluation
Support Thien Long not only with master data set-up but also warehouse management
WMS system supports to manage multiple customers, owners as well as many warehouses in the same system Additionally, providing reports, calculating billing as well as sending email automatically to customers also help Thien Long Group to reduce labor force and paper works but still maintain the proficiency Besides, it ensures
19 inventory plan to replenish goods, discharge goods, and promote as well as automatic lock management (hold) & batch output management (split).
Arrange the flow of goods in warehouse
WMS system helps users to set up strategies to arrange goods (Put away) and arrange goods (Allocate) on the system Also, it sets up tactics to arrange goods by area, goods characteristics, size, speed of goods movement, speed of inventory turnover, and accurately assigns to each storage location and arranges goods automatically Therefore, instead of costing labor force to check the process, Thien Long can use WMS system to do the similar tasks with higher efficiency
Connect with other logistics activities
As a part of the supply chain, many customers will choose to integrate the warehouse management system with other systems such as transportation management, supplier management, to optimize the logistics activities Therefore, WMS system allows customers to easily sync and integrate with other logistics products and services
Requiring employees to use individual user accounts when entering transactions helps creating an audit trail that connects specific employees to specific transactions, improving accountability and reducing the risk of theft and other problems It also allows employers to identify new training opportunities and other ways to improve employee practices Customers do not need to worry much about company secrets and lose their competitive edge.
There are such two disadvantages including the frequent occurrence of errors and billing reports
Customers regularly report defects of SWM software to Customer support team after implementation There are some reasons for it: o Human
User manipulation error: Due to the complex system, many users do not understand system features, leading to the users’ wrong operation to set up and use the system wrongly compared to the system's standards o Wrong IT code
In the process of creating the system, making corrections and improvements to the system, if IT writes the wrong code, it is easy to lead to the system failure. o Machine
The system is overloaded due to the fact that many customers use the system on the same server, in which many customers operate warehouses with very large data This leads to many times when many customers perform the same feature, causing the system to be overloaded, which may result in system downtime performance.
Uncomplete optimization with operation tactics
In actual operation, sometimes, demand of Thien Long is not about precision but to ensure the fast speed of the process, such as packing and shipping, or fast solutions when system malfunctions However, WMS system still be complex in most of the steps to ensure high precision, with a lot of restrains and compulsory steps for users Besides,when system has some errors, fixing process also costs at least 1 day for temporary treatment and if debug completely, it costs at least two weeks to accomplish
CHAPTER 3: COMMENTS ON THE INTERNSHIP PERIOD AT SMARTLOGSUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
Profession expertise
Internship at Smartlog Supply Chain Solutions Corporation as a Solution and Implementation intern of the Solution and Implementation Department has given the author a more intuitive view of the logistics process in particular and digital technology application in logistics activities, and how WMS system supports businesses in logistics management Before the internship, the author mostly knows about the theory and logistics in general, but not understands the actual operation at warehouse or which solutions are suitable for each step in warehouse and how to improve it under the aid of technology Through the internship process as well as the dedicated guidance and instruction of Deputy manager and Team leader, the author has improved the logistics knowledge and participated into solutions and deployed the solutions for customers, encountered difficulties from customer requirements as well as learnt ways to deal with pop-up situations In the future, the author hopes to gain more experience in many types of warehouses to understand the actual operations of different warehouses: E-commerce,Auto-planning warehouse or Cross-dock as well as update many new features in solving logistics problems not only with warehouses, but also about transportation and many other software such as SAP-Hana or Infor.
Soft-skills
The internship period at the company also helps the author to practice and develop the necessary soft skills in a professional working environment
The first is the ability to self-manage and assign work to yourself The author has improved this skill, especially pressure management due to the job requirement to balance many fields and do many jobs at the same time, so sometimes, the quality of work is not high Gradually, the author has found a way to balance work as well as be more proactive in the assigned work
Besides, the ability to communicate and improvise flexibly when having problems is also significantly improved because the nature of the work requires the author to communicate with customers a lot as well as answer questions throughout the project implementation
Moreover, through working with Business Analysts and get access to many programming languages, the author has a chance to improve logical thinking by collaborating with Business Analyst to analyze logic tasks, performance and describe tasks as well as draw many process diagrams for solutions Additionally, actual characteristics of job require understanding in general SQL and some coding methods,thus, the author takes advantage of onboarding and chances of doing the tasks to improve information technology aspect.
Suggestions for internship company
3.3.1 General suggestion for company business performance
The company needs to strategize and enter new markets to build a business plan with quality customer service, offer a reasonable price as well as organize the implementation of plans to advertise the company's services to customers Most importantly, the company should develop an appropriate human resource strategy in the company to serve the company's requirements well In addition, the company needs to improve the recruitment process to satisfy the requirements of the human resource management.
In order to minimize errors or malfunctions, the company should invest with continuous system improvement and regular feature updates In parallel with creating new products, PDD Department should spend some tasks to check the performance of the system and debug frequently to find out root causes of many errors that customers suffer from
In addition, Customer support team also needs a proactive error-reporting process and follows up the repairing process instead of temporary support as it is now Besides, increasing time for the project to prepare well, especially in the Dev-task period, when Dev codes for the products, is also a good way to ensure improvement and discovery of all problems on site tests, thus minimizing the errors that may happen in the main site for actual operation
The process of checking system features before officially uploading to the system is not careful, because there is no process of checking the system before updating as well as building specific test cases leading to system errors Therefore, to avoid this situation, during the internal test and smoke test, SID and QC must collaborate strictly to include and deal with as much as possible test cases for the system By doing that, Dev and IT can understand more thoroughly, increasing the accuracy of coding and system performance
One of the causes of system errors is that users do the wrong steps in warehouse operation applied WMS system To overcome this error, it is necessary to strengthen trainings for customers to be thorough before they practice in actual work At the same time, analyzing errors carefully and clearly for customers to understand also helps to limit the occurrence of similar errors.
Develop more functions that can be used for most of operation tactics and config separately for each customer Additionally, field survey and As-Is report need to be accomplished with more focus and concentration to ensure that for any happening unmatching, WMS has solutions whether integration or developing new function or removing unnecessary conditions in the product if they are reasonable.
After more than 5 weeks of internship at Smartlog Supply Chain Solutions Corporation, the author has realized the importance of applying digital technology to logistics management in the present time The processes and analysis in the report show that Smartlog has built a relatively complete and complete application process for appropriate use for each customer The report "The process of applying warehouse management system to operate warehousing activities for Thien Long Group at Smartlog Supply Chain Solutions Corporation" analyzed the strengths, weaknesses and proposed solutions based on actual process analysis at the company Besides the strengths, the company also has many weaknesses that need to be overcome Therefore, the company should have long-term solutions and orientations to improve the weaknesses and develop beyond the strengths With highly specialized human resources and talented leaders, the author firmly believes that in the near future, the company will gradually improve with the modern trend, catch up with international trends to help the company develop further
Appendix 1 TO-BE Blueprint for Thien Long Group
Appendix 2 Configuration module for master data set-up
Appendix 3 Receipt view on WMS web
Appendix 4 Receipt view on Mobile App
Appendix 5 Put-away view on Mobile App
Appendix 6 Pallet label printing on WMS system
Appendix 7 Stock count view on WMS System
Appendix 8 Post stock detail on Mobile App
Appendix 9 Picking view on Mobile App
Appendix 10 Packing B2C on Mobile App
Appendix 11 Shipping goods view on Mobile App