Distribution Centre Labour Planning

Industry: Retail, warehousing and logistics
Organisation: Major Australian retailer with multiple distribution centres
Solution type: Custom labour management system integrated with WMS
Core technology: Angular, .NET microservices, Azure SQL, Microsoft Azure
Engagement: Consulting, development, testing, hosting and support

Headline resultData driven staffing decisions across multiple warehouses

Overview

Warehouse managers at a large retailer needed a better way to match staffing to fluctuating order volumes and control labour costs. Using our custom software development services, we built a labour management system that uses order data from the warehouse management system to plan resources, track activity costs, manage compliance and report performance across distribution centres.

The Business Problem

Labour is one of the largest costs in any distribution centre. Without timely data, managers relied on experience and spreadsheets to decide how many people and which skills were needed each day. Compliance tasks such as licence renewals were also tracked manually.

Staffing mismatchStaffing not aligned with real and forecast order volumes
Hidden labour costsLimited visibility of labour cost by activity
Manual licence trackingManual tracking of equipment licences and safety requirements
Inconsistent KPIsInconsistent KPI reporting across sites

Our Solution

We integrated the platform with the existing warehouse management software to access real time and forecast order data. Managers use this to plan headcount and skills for each shift. Daily financial tracking covers picking, packing, putaway, replenishment, cross docking and overtime, giving clear cost visibility.

The system also manages employee licence renewals and work health and safety reminders, and produces KPI reporting across warehouses. It was designed to scale across multiple sites with different KPI requirements.

Order data read from the WMS
Headcount and skills planned
Daily cost tracked by activity
Licences and safety reminders managed
KPIs reported across sites

Distribution centre labour planning software

Key Features

Resource planning from real time and forecast order data
Daily labour cost tracking by warehouse activity
Overtime monitoring
Licence renewal management and WHS reminders
Multi warehouse KPI reporting
Configurable KPIs per site
Integration with the warehouse management system

Outcomes

Staffing decisions based on actual and forecast demand rather than guesswork
Clear visibility of labour costs by activity
Reduced compliance risk through automated licence and safety reminders
Consistent performance reporting across distribution centres
A scalable platform ready for additional sites

Technology Stack

Frontend4 technologies

Angular

HTML5

CSS3

JavaScript

Backend4 technologies

.NET

REST APIs

Microservices

Database1 technology

Azure SQL Database

Hosting1 technology

Microsoft Azure

Integration1 technology

Warehouse Management System

Who This Solution Suits

This approach suits retailers, third party logistics providers, wholesalers and manufacturers operating warehouses or distribution centres where labour is a major cost.