Does NetSuite 2023 Release 1 Boost Supply Chain Efficiency? 

Global supply chains are recovering now. According to Freightos, an online freight marketplace, charges for sea freight have come down compared to last year. For instance, the rates to transport a container from China to the US West Coast and Asia to Europe routes were reduced by 90 percent and 73 percent respectively. When demand for the supply of some goods, such as cars, fell behind, the majority of retailers managed to gain excess stock. 

Though numerous hurdles vanished, new ones appeared. At present, retailers, distributors, and manufacturers keep an eye on similar macroeconomic worries that hit many industries. In November, retail sales dropped at an alarming rate. It indicates the huge impact of constant inflation on customer demand. The post-pandemic period witnessed a decline in numerous manufacturing indexes. Recruitment of new employees turned into a major challenge as a huge number of vacancies were reported.  

Because of these factors, the companies vow to make maximum utilization of their existing resources. Now, most businesses opt for technology to automate work and boost efficiency after facing many hurdles to identify an eligible workforce and escalating worries over the bottom line. Interestingly, NetSuite has come up with updated features to cater to the interests of businesses that aim to elevate the productivity of their workers, recognize investment opportunities, and keep an eye on costs. 

Optimize Labor Output in the Warehouse  

Packing and Shipping

NetSuite 2023 Release 1 eases the job of warehouse workers with new features to NetSuite pack station. NetSuite Ship Central mobile application, which brings shipping functionality to NetSuite pack station allows the workers to pack and prepare orders for shipment. As all information and instructions related to packing and shipping are in one place, the mobile app can identify multiple orders placed by the same customer. This helps the workers combine the ordered products and cut shipping costs. 

Ship Central mobile app also assists your order fulfillment team in identifying the best courier partner based on order delivery date and location. They can select the best one and print suitable shipping labels.  

With NetSuite 2023 Release 1, the operations managers create fulfillment packing and shipping workflows in Ship Central after conceiving the best plan for the business. This app also contains new roles and dashboards designed for warehouse employees, including managers. This feature helps them monitor the status of the orders and pending shipments.  

Firms based in the US can access NetSuite Ship Central now. 

Picking

The updated NetSuite Warehouse Management System (WMS) assures efficient picking of individual items in a kit. Instead of assigning a single person to collect five different items from a warehouse, two or three workers can gather different items from respective zones for processing the order. Once the collection of items is complete, the workers can pack them. This procedure increases staff productivity while picking items for a kit and reduces labor costs.

Further, new picking flows in NetSuite WMS let the warehouse staff mark partially picked orders as complete. This benefits the company when the stock is running low, and you don’t want to allot the remaining stock to fulfil a single customer order. When the warehouse staffer marks a partially filled order as completed, the company can make the remaining stock available for other orders instead of reserving it for an incomplete order. This system aids the firms to amass available stock when supply drops and allows workers to resolve such situations without seeking the manager’s support.  

In NetSuite 2023.1, warehouse staff who pick the items can mark a bin as empty when not enough items are available to fulfil an order due to various reasons such as insufficient quantity, damaged goods, etc. After marking a bin as empty, an appropriate reason code should be selected to complete the process. This system will record these marked bins and restrict other workers on similar duties from wasting time depending on the bin. It also alerts workers in charge to restock the items. 

Counting 

Earlier, NetSuite 2022 Release 2 improved inventory counting with NetSuite Smart Counting, which allows workers to engage in cycle counts without closing operations. These benefits are now extended to lot- and serial-numbered items, which companies use to link individual items to end customers and suppliers via forward-and-back tracing. Using mobile devices, the warehouse and store employees can easily count these items. If they find any mismatches while counting the items, they can fix them with just a few steps. 

NetSuite Smart Count, which lets persistent and smooth cycle counts, refine inventory accuracy and make it easier to maintain optimal stock levels. This tool also avoids expensive rush orders and lost sales due to item unavailability that affects your revenue.  

Assists Manufacturers in Reducing Costs and Waste

Interestingly, manufacturers also benefitted from NetSuite 2023 Release 1. Decision-makers often seem to be judgmental while monitoring expenses. Hence, manufacturing leaders require more authentic and detailed cost projections. The Costed BOM Report SuiteApp of NetSuite offers a complete overview of all expenses related to manufacturing assembly items, including material, labor, machinery, setup and overhead costs. Given the dramatic changes in the costs of many supplies, providing the option to base component costs on your preferred inventory valuation method or the most recent purchase prices will be extremely beneficial. You need to simply choose a bill of materials and routing to check the expected cost of production for the item. Decision-makers can use this information to improve control costs by choosing the right alternative components or slowing production based on the price increase.  This helps to set the right forecasts while planning budgets. At the same time, the teams engaged in product research and development can rely on this report to evaluate the potential and profitability of new products.  

Manufacturing Mobile SuiteApp 

The Manufacturing mobile SuiteApp supports standalone assemblies without a related work order. This benefits simple manufacturing processes or random cases when there is a demand to immediately build a product in situations like replacement emergencies. Without creating a new work order, the employee can simply make use of the standalone assembly feature to register the inventory selected for building the new product.

At the same time, the latest version of SuiteApp incorporates all jobs, irrespective of work orders, and takes producers closer to paperless production. All customers who use NetSuite work orders and assemblies can use this feature. 

Many of the newly launched firms depend on contract manufacturers for products to run their businesses. They found that the service of these third parties assures convenience and flexibility. But no business can compromise on quality. NetSuite 2023.1 lets the QA team generate automatic inspections in NetSuite Quality Management for items made by contract manufacturers. With this, the companies can check the quality of products before delivery and ensure that they satisfy the customer.  

The recent version of NetSuite Quality Management is also equipped with features to create ad-hoc inspection requests for lot-and serial-numbered items. QA managers can use these inspection rules for some lot-and serial-numbered items. At the same time, it also allows the managers to create inspection requests for specific items that should be verified regularly at the warehouse.  

NetSuite, a cloud-based ERP, has become one of the most dependable platforms for businesses to run their operations. Contact Jobin and Jismi to learn more about NetSuite and to address problems in your company processes.