To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case study. The information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Anchanto. All designs are part of Anchanto's intellectual property.
Background
Anchanto debuted in Singapore with the aim of streamlining backend e-commerce tasks for businesses. Following numerous rounds of development, they crafted the Anchanto E-Warehouse Management System, a web solution built entirely from the ground up. While it possessed all the necessary functionalities, its design was as rudimentary as it came, lacking any involvement from a design team.
The original eWMS website
The Challenge
"Elevating A Rudimentary website into a sophisticated and user-centric web application."
Beyond my official job description,
my responsibilities expanded significantly.
Outcome
Successful global launch of the new and improved version of the WMS Product with complete backwards compatibility with its legacy product and additional unique features.
Approach
I entered the project when the prior designer had initiated the redesign, establishing a visual style guide and laying out the framework of the application. Only a handful of basic modules had been designed, serving as my sole reference for continuing the design of the remaining modules. However, there was no formal handover from any member of the design team.
With development set to kick off shortly, I had to quickly gear up and finalize the designs.
Time was of the essence, leaving me little opportunity to follow the user-centered design process step by step meticulously.
Instead, I had to adapt it to best suit the demands of the fast-paced delivery sprints.
Domain Understanding
When I joined the company, I did not know what the logistics domain entails. My experience had been limited to the consumer perspective, primarily as an enthusiastic e-commerce shopper.
What is Warehouse Management?
Warehouse management is the act of organising and controlling everything within your warehouse – and making sure it all runs in the most optimal way possible.
Warehouse management encompasses the task of efficiently organizing and overseeing all operations within a warehouse. This involves:
✅ Organizing the layout of the warehouse and managing its inventory effectively.
✅ Ensuring the availability and proper maintenance of necessary equipment.
✅ Handling the intake and management of new stock entering the facility.
✅ Executing tasks such as picking, packing, and shipping orders accurately and promptly.
✅ Monitoring and enhancing overall warehouse performance through tracking and implementing improvements.
Most high-growth retailers use automation tools like some form of Warehouse Management Systems to control this part of their supply chain.
The Warehouse Management Process
I had daily interactions with the implementation team and solution consultants to gather user insights.
Designing a Warehouse Management System that caters to various company types, user numbers, and fulfillment objectives is a challenging task. However, with the active participation of the Implementation Head and Consultants, who directly engage with end-users, we came remarkably close to achieving this goal. Their profound understanding of the entire process, along with their knowledge of pain points and user requirements, proved invaluable in crafting a solution that meets diverse needs effectively.
Major Pain Points
Legacy WMS limitations
Constrained capabilities and obsolete technology impede the scalability of the enterprise.
Complex management of multiple customers and operations
This leads to time-consuming onboarding procedures and a deficiency of user-friendly systems to optimize operations.
Manual and disjointed operations prevail
Many companies relying on Excel sheets for daily tasks, resulting in inefficiencies and inaccuracies.
Expectations
Custom flow design and flexibility
Full flexibility while choosing the operation flows based on the working style as well as custom virtual location setup.
Modular warehouses
Effortlessly incorporation of warehouses, customers, and locations as business grows, eliminating the need for transitioning to another system.
Multiple roles and personas
Tailored view for each user role based on their use cases along with flexibility to manage roles and permissions.
Visual overview of warehouse
A bird's-eye view of the entire warehouse layout, leveraging virtual locations to empower users in optimizing capacity utilization and identifying efficient picking routes.
PROCESS FLOWS
Based on the insights, I started creating process flows. These helped in getting a clear picture of how the UI flow should be made.
THE SOLUTION
Despite technically being a redesign, we focused on enhancing the product's robustness and functionality by introducing several unique features.
This approach aimed to elevate its performance and provide users with an enriched experience.
✳️ Introduction of an Admin Panel
Warehouse Management Systems can be very complex due to the varied requirements of different customers. Creating custom workflows for each client isn't scalable in the long run.
To address this, we structured the application to allow customers to tailor components and process flows according to their unique needs. Through an admin panel, users could select warehouse setup components, order processing flows, and inventory configurations and much more.
ONBOARDING AND CONFIGURATION
1
Flexibility in choosing the type of account based on the customer type
2
Complete freedom in selection of hierarchical storage types present in the customer's warehouse
3
Define number of admin and regular users
4
Process flow wise selection which reflects in the solution
5
Selection here will affect the validations in the application
6
Add-on features can be enabled based on the type of goods stored in the warehouses
✳️ Roles and permissions Module
With over 5 types of users anticipated to use the solution, we developed a modular system and application view tailored to each user role. By analyzing various use cases, we defined permissions and crafted a detailed user role matrix to guide the implementation.
User Role Matrix
breadcrumb
primary left navigation for main modules
actions
tabular content
secondary navigation for submodules
List of users
pagination
Create new user
Roles list
✳️ Visual Overview of Warehouse and its Operations
One standout feature I conceptualized was the warehouse overview module, which integrated functionalities such as a capacity map, heatmap, and picking route optimizations. This comprehensive feature offers users a holistic view of their warehouse, showing utilization levels, identifying heavily used locations, and providing optimized picking routes.
CAPACITY OVERVIEW
1
The entire warehouse layout can be viewed based on the selected warehouse facility. The layout will be drilled down accordingly.
2
The layout is colour coded based on its status - empty or used.
3
The overview of the warehouse storage usage is indicated on the right with information on available locations.
WAREHOUSE HEATMAP
1
The warehouse heatmap gives a real time overview on how busy each picking location is using colour coding. This information is helpful as the warehouse admin can optimise the picking route based on this.
2
The user can hover over any box to see the details
3
The chart on the right indicates how much of the picking is completed.
DASHBOARD
1
The dashboard is the landing page of the application. Here the user gets a glimpse of all the warehouse processes based on their statuses.
2
The cards are adjustable based on user preference.
Some other important modules were inventory, order and inbound.
Inventory Module
The inventory module contains all the information about the products in the warehouse as per their status in terms of stock, warehouse process, and sales.
Inbound Module
All the consignments that come to the warehouse go through an inbound procedure which includes creation of purchase orders, receiving stock, counting and quality check followed by put away in designated warehouse location.
Order Module
Orders are created and then picked and packed by the designated user roles. They are grouped based on the stage of the process they are in.
Mobile App
Interestingly, a significant portion of our users were warehouse staff constantly on the move – pickers, packers, dispatchers, and more. Their tasks required real-time completion, facilitated by PDA devices (handheld mobile devices. To meet their needs, we developed a mobile app with all the required functionalities, streamlined for ease of use. Through multiple iterations and brainstorming sessions, we crafted a comprehensive mobile application tailored to their workflow requirements.
Learnings
I have elaborated more on my learnings in the below medium article.
Do check it out. :)