Bold new product to improve logistics
By Galina Kononova
Several years ago, enterprise managers had no idea that IT might be used to reduce costs and make long-term sales forecasts. These days, the software is already in use. Once logged in, those in charge can see how best to organise their warehouses, to save money and time, and use personnel to best effect.
The Supporting Decision-Making on Management of Warehouse Stocks programme was developed by the pro-rector of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio-electronics, Yelena Zhivitskaya. Using her own ideas, supported by students, postgraduates and advanced students, she created a fundamentally new logistical product, without equal in Belarus. The program is designed to aid five work positions: warehouse workers, logisticians, managers, system administrators and buyers. The software presents all information in an easily accessible manner, giving information on price, quantity and expiration date in warehouses, as well as data about manufacturers and buyers. Logisticians can see sales volumes for specific periods while managers have access to system analysis of warehouse stocks. Projection software allows them to plan sales in the short and long-term: for 1 month or up to a year, taking into account seasonal trends.
Innovative and hi-tech, the software allows enterprise heads to really see the value of their warehouse stock (helping with insurance) and schedules to allow them to make the best logistical decisions. Ms. Zhivitskaya says, “The elements of the system are already being implemented at several enterprises countrywide, while the program itself has received approval from two industrial sites.”
The software is being extended all the time, to take into account the needs of individual enterprises. Of course, some will find it more useful than others but the developers emphasise that it should pay for itself within a year. Those at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio-electronics are yet to comment on the price of this development, noting that all depends on the particular company. However, Ms. Zhivitskaya anticipates graduates of the BSUIR being involved with the new speciality of ‘information systems and technologies in logistics’ for several coming years, believing that such specialists will be in demand.
Ms. Zhivitskaya took her project to a fair of innovative ideas at the end of November, where the motto was ‘Innovations serving the national economy’: a notion fully reflecting the aim of the new software.