Yes, there are a million reasons why your warehouse can benefit by investing in a Warehouse Management System (#WMS) – but for today… let’s just look at our top five game-changers.
1. Reduce Operating Expenses
A well-designed Warehouse Management System (WMS) reduces operating expenses in a variety of ways; it determines the most effective use of labor, space and time. Software developers who are experts in their work, and deeply understand warehouse/ supply chain challenges can analyze where to keep materials, products and equipment to optimize your warehouse. A robust WMS matched with a warehouse consultation will enable users to discover improved floor plans, pallets placements, shelf heights and even explore new technologies such as scanners, baggers and label-printed bags.
2. Increase Warehouse Productivity
One of the most effective approaches to continually increasing warehouse productivity is to gain insights about your business from a series of metrics. Determining your orders, lines and items picked per hour is a key to streamlining and fine-tuning all order fulfilment. A sophisticated warehouse management system #WMS will ensure pick-and-pack performance is keeping up with every other process happening in the warehouse.
3. Enhanced Inventory Visibility
Inventory visibility is one of the most important and essential features provided by a WMS. It provides real-time data on the stock through barcoding, serial numbers and RFID tagging. When the user can track inventory movement on the warehouse floor it allows them to demand forecasts, and gain insights into which products surge among which customers at which time of the year. This data is invaluable to help you know which product to invest in and which to potentially scale back on – or retire. Increased traceability is also extremely helpful in the event of a recall.
4. Accelerating Order Fulfilment
The best WMS suites are integrated into Order Management Systems (OMS). Not only do you want to accelerate your orders, but you also want to fine-tune the process. Orders need to be processed, fulfilled and shipped while providing on-time delivery, order fill rate, order accuracy, line accuracy, order cycle time and perfect order completion.
5. Inbound and Outbound Optimization
Just as users can optimize the location of inventory and equipment, they can also streamline how it will move within the warehouse. The benefits of a solid WMS become immediately apparent the moment you begin receiving inventory; inbound and outbound planning tools will facilitate scheduling and improve the put-away process. A WMS will allow you to determine the most appropriate date and time to receive a shipment based on the labour and equipment available.
A quality WMS also leverages sophisticated algorithms to design the best pick-and-pack routes for outbound operations. These algorithms are designed to take employee location into account, which allows staff to focus on the task closest to them first. A WMS can analyze the size and nature of the product, select a user zone, then batch-pick to reduce warehouse holdups. Optimizing picking is crucial since labor is one of the greatest costs in warehouse management.
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