What is warehouse management, and how can a software system optimize your warehousing? Firstly, organization in the warehouse is key to fluid product movement and employee travel. Warehouse management optimizes operations and the storage of products from reception to shipment or relocation. Now that we’ve covered the warehouse management definition, let’s delve deeper into its functions, features and FAQs.
On the other hand, warehouse management software can help guide warehouse managers by setting up a viable product floor with room for employees to complete picking. By leveraging data provided by the management system, products that historically sold better can be set up near the packing floor while placing slow-moving products further away.
Warehouse management usually includes various labeling and tagging tools to expedite picking. RFID tagging and pick-to-light are on the rise because they increase pick accuracy and cut down on time spent looking for a product. There are many features included in most WMS solutions that can tip the organizational scales in your favor:
Organizing a warehouse space requires accurate warehouse management, tracking inventory error rates, using stackable shelf bins, implementing cycle counts and more.
Manage inventory
Inventory management is a vital part of running a successful warehouse. Warehouse efficiency relies on the speed and accuracy of products moving from the warehouse to packing and distribution areas. To accomplish this, many warehouses adopt separate inventory management systems, but can a warehouse management system do the same job?
A WMS can take care of inventory management if it includes all the necessary features. However, it also depends on the size of your warehousing operation. Inventory management systems are generally smaller and need help handling huge amounts of products.
Meanwhile, a warehouse management system can handle all warehousing processes and large item volumes. Depending on your unique requirements, a WMS can stand in for an inventory management system, but keep track of some important features they should both have:
Strengthen customer relationships
Real-time tracking and transparency help expedite warehouse customer relationship management (CRM). Most logistics companies need help tracking items moving in and out of distribution centers and warehouses. From inventory tracking to optimizing warehouse functions and shipment processes, warehouse management boosts productivity and reduces overhead costs while improving customer service.
A modern WMS easily integrates with software systems, including barcode scanning and transportation management (TMS), customer relationship management (CRM) and ERP modules. Integrating WMS with a diverse range of solutions can provide multiple advantages to improve customer experiences:
- Real-time insights
- Management of warehouse employees
- Time saving
- Accurate data
- Enhanced visibility
- Efficient delivery
Make transportation management easier
While transportation management has its little ecosystem in the larger world of supply chain management, a WMS solution can make it run smoothly. Organizing is the name of the game when it comes to optimizing transportation management, and it begins in the warehouse.
By adopting a warehouse management system, warehouses can track product availability and items that need shipping. This way, warehouse managers can see how many trucks are available to move the required products for the day.
Labor management features play an important role in planning the distribution of products. By tracking labor on a given day, warehouse managers can plan accordingly. If a small team is available, warehouse managers can schedule a receipt of a large batch of new products for a later date. Some other WMS features make transportation management easier:
- Labor management
- Packing management
- Shipping support
- Cross-docking
Improve warehouse performance
The accuracy and speed of customer order fulfillment are major indicators of a successful operation. By implementing a WMS that fulfills your requirements, warehouse managers can keep track of some vital KPIs to keep their warehouse running at maximum efficiency:
- The efficiency of product reception
- The rate of product return
- Picking and packing accuracy
- Average order processing time
A warehousing management solution provides valuable visibility into day-to-day warehousing practices while gathering helpful data that managers can use to plan for the future. Data visibility can show where a warehouse is slipping up and how managers can act before a problem arises. The important KPIs that define a functioning warehouse can stay optimized by leveraging this data.
Apply better warehousing logistics
Logistics is a buzzword in the world of supply chain management today. Logistics are important at every step when considering the entirety of a supply chain. From manufacturing to the final delivery of a completed product, different management systems help put strong logistics practices into use to optimize different legs of the chain.
When it comes to warehousing logistics, a WMS is critical. As soon as a product is received, warehousing logistics dictate how quickly it moves from reception to storage and eventually out for distribution. Achieving maximum fulfillment expediency requires fine-tuned warehousing logistics through the usage of the aforementioned data visibility these warehouse management systems provide.
FAQs
What Are the Types of Warehouse Management Systems?
There are a few different types of warehousing management systems to choose from: standalone, supply chain modules, ERP integrated and cloud-based. Standalone options are popular among most modern warehousing operations. They are the most basic type of WMS and are popular for their warehouse management features.
The most suitable option for your business will depend on factors such as applicability in industries beyond warehouse management, level of investment, integration feasibility and deployment.
However, there are certain features you need to consider before choosing the right warehousing management solution for your business:
- Inventory management systems
- Multiple clients
- 3pl
- Multichannel fulfillment services
- Third-party logistics billing
Who Uses a WMS?
Warehouse managers oversee most of the warehouse management process. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’re the primary warehouse management system users. That said, however, they’re by no means the only ones who benefit from using it. Thanks to labor management features found in most warehouse management systems, warehouse employees benefit from using WMS solutions as well.
They can use it to view the orders for processing and check their schedule to know what tasks they have to complete each day. Planning officers can instantly make business decisions on items that can incur losses using the latest information.
What Are the Biggest Benefits of Using a WMS?
There’s a good reason for the rise in popularity of warehouse management platforms in the last several years. The many benefits that they convey to warehousing businesses are hard to ignore. Some of the standout benefits of using a WMS include reduced operating expenses, continuous process optimization, enhanced security and improved customer and supplier relationships.
Other benefits that companies commonly gain from using a WMS include:
- Maximizing their labor resources
- Simplifying just-in-time inventory
- Enhancing demand planning
- Increasing transparency to both employees and suppliers
These systems streamline and optimize nearly every critical aspect of running a successful warehousing operation.
Introducing automation tech can take things a step further. Robotics, machine learning and AI are becoming more commonplace in warehouses worldwide. Automating is the way to go if you’re looking to boost efficiency, cut down on errors and ship products faster.
What Are the Most Common Integrations?
To make the most out of your WMS, integration is important. As mentioned above, there are four types of warehouse management systems: standalone, cloud-based, ERP and SCM modules.
ERP integration centralizes your system so you can work with all your data in one location. This process creates less manual data entry as well as more data security. SCM integration does much of the same, except that instead of centralizing your software, it does it for all your supply chain-related systems.
Transportation management system (TMS) integration is also common. TMS integration streamlines and automates the organization of your distribution processes. The two systems work together to create a cohesive, fluid distribution system that ensures accurate and prompt product delivery.
Finally, we come to an integration that’s not obvious at first but nonetheless useful: CRM. CRM integration gives you more data to create a 360-degree view of your customers and their experiences. Rather than merely viewing their interactions with your marketing and sales materials, you can also track their orders.
How Does Warehouse Management Affect Supply Chain Management?
Warehouse management is a central link in the supply chain management lifecycle. It helps organize goods to make sure shipping takes place on time. Getting things picked, packed and shipped accurately and on time is a warehouse’s most significant effect on the supply chain.
If your warehouse management processes become inefficient and inaccurate, they can derail your entire operation. Sending products to the wrong location or sending the right products late can damage your reputation among clients. When your customers get what they want when they want it, there is a higher chance they’ll become return customers.
What Does Logistics Mean in Warehouse Management?
You’ve certainly heard the word “logistics” before, but what does it mean when it comes to warehouse management? In short, logistics is an umbrella term for the various tasks related to transportation, warehousing, inventory, information management and more. These include the various processes in the supply chain that happen before, during and after warehousing.
The different logistics functions must work in tandem to ensure that your supply chain is as efficient as possible. A practical example would be when you schedule the initial reception of goods to ensure they arrive at the warehouse when there’s room for inventory. Additionally, those goods leave the warehouse on time, so they arrive at their destination exactly when they need to be there.
What Is the Meaning of Inbound and Outbound Logistics?
Inbound and outbound logistics are opposites. Logistics involves the processes directly related to warehousing before, during and after products arrive or are shipped. Inbound logistics, therefore, are the processes involved with incoming goods. Outbound logistics, on the other hand, deals with distributing goods.
Inbound logistics mostly receive and store goods when they arrive at the warehouse. Every step of the process, from a shipment arriving by truck (or other transportation) to the storage of the goods, is a part of inbound logistics. A crucial component of inbound logistics is recording information related to storing the goods for easy tracking when it’s time to move them out of the warehouse.
Outbound logistics involves all processes that ship goods out of the warehouse, including order fulfillment. This process includes collecting various items together, loading them onto a truck (or other transportation) and sending them to their destination (most likely the customer).
What Is the Difference Between Warehouse Management and Inventory Management?
There’s a good amount of crossover between warehouse management solutions and inventory management systems. It has created some confusion on what the differences are between the two. WMS solutions are more robust, handling all of the warehousing features in addition to inventory.
Inventory management systems are generally cheaper than WMS, including being more “lightweight” systems. Inventory management systems focus on tasks and processes, including organizing and streamlining product storage.
When it comes down to inventory features, there are even more noticeable differences. Inventory management systems can only handle a limited number of products, whereas WMS solutions can process a high volume and wide variety of goods. A warehouse that works with fewer products may be fine using an inventory management system, but one that handles a diverse set of products would need a WMS.
Can You Use a WMS for Inventory Control?
Thanks to its powerful inventory management features, a WMS is a great tool for inventory control. One of the capabilities that makes it valuable is differentiating between pack sizes like pallets, cases and individual items.
A WMS identifies whether each unit is a pallet, a case or an item based on each unit’s identifying barcode/SKU/serial number. This information makes planning for inventory storage much easier. For example, you’ll never be caught off guard thinking that you’ll place a unit of 100 items in a corner when in fact, that unit turns out to be 100 full cases.
What Is Putaway?
Putaway or put-away refers to literally putting away all of your incoming stock. The putaway process is a part of inbound logistics that covers the tasks related to receiving and stocking inventory. A WMS is immensely useful for effective putaway.
How Does Warehouse Management Help With Transportation Management?
One of the main benefits that WMS tools provide is transportation management. As you know, inventory gets organized within a warehouse to stock all the products together. In turn, this helps plan for the type of transportation and how frequently it’s needed to deliver products on time.
First and foremost, warehouse management helps track the amount of stock in each warehouse. With this information in hand, you can see how many trucks you need to allocate to each warehouse.
For example, let’s say that warehouse A has 100 pallets of a certain product, while warehouse B has only 80 cases of it. In this case, you know that you need to allocate four 53” trailers to warehouse A, while you only need to send a small truck to deliver the products from warehouse B (if it’s not part of a bigger order).
In addition, knowing how much labor you have available at each warehouse helps schedule more efficient shipments. If you have a day where most of your labor is tied up delivering several small shipments, it’s probably not a good day to receive a large shipment.
In this case, you can organize your shipment dates to make the most of your available labor. For example, you can alternate shipment dates to manage several small shipments on some days and a few larger ones on others.
How Do I Select a Warehouse Management System?
Finding the perfect warehouse management system can be daunting if you go in blindly. Take some time to think about the unique requirements of your operation. Is there money in the budget to cover a brand-new system? How large is your warehousing operation, and do you require a complex solution or something simpler?
By laying out a list of what you need, you can narrow the expansive field of vendors into something more manageable. If you want more help or guidance, visit our Warehouse Management Requirements Checklist or our guide on creating a WMS RFP.
Having trouble finding the right software vendor? We’d love to help! Contact our team for tailored recommendations by emailing support@selecthub.com or via phone at 855-850-3850.
