Overview:
For Vaccine Management Operations seeking improvements in the Order Fulfillment process, it is essential to streamline the order fulfillment rule process from time of order receipt to the time of shipping. Efficiently organizing and categorizing order fulfillment rules and procedures are measurable ways to reduce cost, reduce order cycle time, optimize labor and improve process management.

The Challenges of Vaccine Management

The regulatory controls associated with vaccine management are the Distribution Center's (DC) largest labor component. A significant portion of the DC labor usage results from the time required to adhere to the order fulfillment rules as they are (1) preparing an order to be picked, (2) checking whether or not a customer can receive a requested order, and (3) verifying that the customer can, in fact, receive the item(s) that they have ordered.

By incorporating the order fulfillment rules for vaccine management within the WMS, order fulfillment can be notably improved. The Decision Support System involves insuring that each unique ordering criteria for each vaccine is adhered to as an order is processed. Within the WMS this involves properly developing each manual vaccine order fulfillment rule, such as item availability and quantities allowed, as well as maintaining more detailed customer information than is in a traditional WMS.

The Solution: DSS-enabled WMS

Decision Support System (DSS) enabled warehouse management systems can overcome the challenges of compliance to complex rules, resulting in a highly efficient distribution center that reduces order cycle time and decreases labor costs per order. Decision Support Systems (DSS) are the systematic organization of complex decision algorithms into any "system" for greater control, accuracy and efficiency.