A Warehouse Management System (WMS) will bring a range of benefits to many different types of organizations. Any operation where there is a need for stock control can benefit in a variety of areas.

Staffing Levels
Warehouse labour costs can be extremely high when there is a large throughput of items. Implementing a WMS will mean that companies can reduce staffing levels in two ways. Normal operational conditions will see reductions in staffing levels and seasonal peaks in demand are more likely to be met and managed by the system as opposed to the recruitment of temporary staff.

Equipment Levels
With a reduction in the workforce comes a reduction in the volume of equipment required to run a warehouse facility. This results in a significant reduction on annual maintenance budgets and future capital purchases of new equipment can be reduced. Workforce reductions can, in some circumstances be so significant that shift reductions are not uncommon after the implementation of a WMS.

Inventory Accuracy
Providing the customer with the goods they want, at the time they want them will be facilitated in no small way by a WMS. System driven routines monitor stock levels accurately and can be responsible for placing timely orders that ensure stock is always available to the customer. An inventory that can be depended upon means that an organisation can reduce inventory levels to the bare minimum and see the benefit of reduced operating costs as a result. In some organisations those costs can be reduced by as much as twelve percent.

Maximise Use of Facilities
As a business expands it needs to be capable of managing larger volumes of inventory throughput. This need not mean going to the expense of bring new warehousing on stream. Although it’s important to understand what a Warehouse Management System is, a WMS can sit at the heart of a function that is optimised to make the maximum use of facilities. The ability to manage inventory more accurately translates into a better use of existing facilities. Automated routines for stock rotation and picking also mean there is a decreased requirement for space, leading to more efficient use of existing facilities.

Effective Management Control
Real time reporting from a well implemented WMS can provide warnings of stock control issues in advance. Historical productivity reports can be used to provide intelligence based system of warning reports that make costly mistakes less likely. Effective management control in this way provides opportunities for enhanced customer service. Backordered inventory can automatically be released, picked and delivered according to a customer’s exact requirements. A good WMS will also provide a rigid backbone for any distribution or stock control operation. The rigid backbone can then be used to drive further process improvements in areas once thought to cost ineffective to address. As fewer steps in an operation remain informal there is decrease in the need for training and lower error rates.

Often people think that every warehouse management system software (WMS) is the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. Effective warehouse management involves a lot more than simply knowing where material has been stored. In fact, choosing the right WMS for your operation can have profound effects on your business and deliver important benefits.

1. Optimized Processes

The correct WMS will allow you to optimize your processes to suit your business and the types of materials you manage.

There are many ways to pick material, and the correct WMS will allow you to pick using a variety of algorithms, including wave, zone, and batch picking.

In addition, a WMS must accept a variety of input methods, including bar codes, RFID or smart scales and equipment automation.

2. Efficient Labor Allocation

Depending on the size of your facility and any special material handling requirements, it may make sense to distribute picking and put away tasks differently or interleave them for maximum efficiency.

The pick/pack/put away combinations in most warehouses are endless, and a good WMS will help you to make the best use of your available resources without wasting effort.

3. Improved Supplier and Customer Relationships

An efficiently run warehouse helps to reduce delivery lead times and order accuracy errors. Perfect orders mean happier customers. Suppliers are happier too when they can make deliveries without long waits for a dock or someone to accept the delivery.

“The correct WMS can help improve relationships with all parties in your demand and supply chain.”

4. Reduced Operational Expenses

By ensuring perishable or expiring inventory is picked first, a good WMS can help reduce waste.

Efficient use of space and labor also reduces waste; and a WMS can calculate the optimum location for each item to ensure that the use of space is balanced against the pick and put-a-way effort.

Reduce these 3 cost areas to optimize your supply network

5. Better Demand Planning

When you ship perfect orders, your demand history is not cluttered with repeat shipments or replacement materials for incorrectly shipped items, helping to ensure that your demand history is clean.

The correct WMS not only improves your perfect order rate, it can use the history to predict future demand using a “best fit” algorithm to calculate demand.

6. Better Balanced Inventory

Ensuring inventory is stored in the proper environment and used in the best order helps to minimize scrap, waste, and obsolescence. Improved record accuracy allows you to minimize safety stock, on hand quantities and lot sizes so you can achieve the cost and efficiency savings of a JIT strategy.

7. Improved Security

A good WMS system requires workers to enter transactions using their own user account. The result is an audit trail that ties transactions to the specific worker, which helps to reduce pilferage and other forms of shrinkage and provide opportunities for coaching.

8. Employee Morale

A WMS helps provide structure in the workplace, and through our research, we learned that this structure boosts employee morale.

When an employee knows exactly what they are supposed to be doing, they are more fulfilled by their work. They respond well to the efficient processes, increased accuracy, and situational autonomy provided by a WMS.

9. Transparency and Visibility

Providing visibility into inventory usage and on hand balances helps suppliers plan their own production, reducing lead times and costs of excess inventory.  Additionally, this visibility allows customer service staff immediate access to real-time data enabling better end customer support.

10. Continuous Improvement

You should be able to rely on your WMS vendor to keep abreast of trends in the industry and to support new ideas with a continuous stream of new functionality that helps you to reduce costs, improve operations, and optimize processes with each new release.