One of the biggest burdens your paper-based warehouse management system suffers from is a lack of flexibility in order processing. Paper tickets cannot be reassigned or modified on the floor. In addition, inventory issues and out-of-stock items can disrupt your system indefinitely. By contrast, a WMS provides dynamic dispatching of orders and real-time updates along the way. This can largely increase your warehouse efficiency by ensuring every order that gets dispatched can be fulfilled quickly and completely.
Semi-annual and annual physical inventories are huge disruptions to your normal workflow. A WMS will allow you to make the most of your team's time by implementing cycle counts rather than relying on large-scale physical inventories. Cycle counting also has a positive effect on the accuracy of your inventory system.
Of course, dynamic dispatching only does so much for your warehouse efficiency. The next step in the process is optimized routing so that your workers are never covering the same ground twice. You can even go to batch picking, where workers are picking for multiple orders at the same time. This will help ensure that your team members are expending less energy while accomplishing more work. Your new WMS will automatically direct your workers through the warehouse and validate all of their activity.
Since WMS systems can be designed to meet the exact needs of the customer, there can be a lot of customization that goes into designing an interface that works well for you. Your WMS can be designed for compatibility with all of your other software programs or can replace them with a multi-functional solution if so desired.
Every company is searching for ways to modernize and improve warehouse efficiency. The right WMS helps you accomplish this by reducing waste and downtime throughout your entire process. It also creates a whole new level of flexibility and fluidity in your workflow that will improve your customer service and make it possible to expand your profitability.