Not all Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) are alike. When you have the right system, you can expect streamlined processes and increased efficiencies that elevate customer satisfaction and improve profitability. The wrong one, on the other hand, will make work harder and cut into your business's bottom line.
Enhanced Productivity
The right WMS can be tailored to meet your company’s operations, and it streamlines processes and optimizes workflow. In doing so, it increases warehouse productivity, decreases the number of staff required to get the job done, and reduces the amount of training required to get new workers up to speed.
Increased Customer Satisfaction and Profits
A customizable WMS solution helps companies minimize steps and develop efficient procedures for receiving, putaway, picking, packing, and shipping. This leads to quicker fulfillment and less waste, which means greater customer satisfaction and larger profits.
Simplified Communications
A dedicated WMS is usually a better option than using an ERP's WMS module. But the WMS you choose is only the right one if it can communicate with your ERP. Without robust ERP integration, you’ll find yourself just as frustrated and your work just as inefficient as with paper-based processes or an inflexible ERP module. A WMS that can communicate reliably with your ERP will join seamlessly with your company’s work efforts. It will help create unanticipated efficiencies and streamline workflows.
More Accuracy and Less Waste
The best WMS solutions offer automated processes that increase accuracy and eliminate waste. They include workflow compliance, which guides workers along an optimized route, so they don’t have to spend time searching for inventory items. They also enforce process validation, which prevents workers from moving to a new task until they correctly complete the current one. Validation decreases the number of errors that occur during receiving, putting away, picking, consolidating, and packing.
Labor is typically one of the largest expenses in a warehouse, so reducing unproductive time and errors means workers have more time to complete necessary tasks and fulfill orders and increased profits.
Improved Transparency and Insight
Your WMS should deliver automated, comprehensive data collection and reporting to elevate inventory efficiency. The right solution will give you full knowledge of your current inventory and enable you to identify strategies for correcting and avoiding errors, inefficiencies, and operational hang-ups. It’ll also help you evaluate future warehouse storage needs and determine how to meet them.
When you’re using the right WMS, you’ll know it – and so will your customers. It will complement and enhance your company’s operations and deliver tools that increase your warehouse productivity. It will enable you to fulfill orders more proficiently, quickly, and accurately and provide analytics that will keep you ahead of the curve. The result: happier customers, continuous improvement and growth, reduced costs, and increased profits.
