What is a Warehouse Management System for Small Businesses ?
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software application designed to manage and support warehouse functionality and distribution center management.
It supports warehouse managers with their day-to-day operational tasks, including planning, organizing, staffing, directing employees or the movement and storage of inventory into, within, and out of a warehouse.
There are many advantages to using a WMS, including:
- Productivity
- A WMS not only keeps track of where your inventory is within a warehouse but also optimizes the product journey from shelf to the doorstep. For example, consider warehouse pickers. They often walk many miles a day within a warehouse picking items to fulfill orders. A WMS uses wave/batch picking algorithms to cut down the walking distance. This means less walking for them and a faster packing and shipping rate for you.
- Cutting Expenses
- Running a business is expensive, but it’s even more costly when you have to constantly update your product tracking technology or call every time a product does not arrive on time. Cloud-based WMS systems are a great way to cut costs because there is no need to constantly update your tech, and you can track your inventory in real-time. The system also manages receiving orders and returns, so that businesses can prevent stock overflow or out of stock situations.
- Real-Time Awareness
- With a WMS, you are in control because you can check your inventory at all times. You can see when a stock is too low or high, and even check the selling or returning frequency of a specific item. By having your warehouse data and knowledge at your fingertips, making a sale is no longer a guessing game.
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| Warehouse Management Software |
A WMS helps you keep track important warehouse elements and details, which may include:
- Stock Keeping Units (SKUs)
- May include relevant information about a products, such as weight, dimensions, case pack, automatic ID labels, barcodes, inventory by location, lot code, and more
- Warehouse Storage Locations:
- Individual location number, picking sequence, type of use (picking, reserve storage), type of storage (each, case, pallet), location size, storage restriction, and more
- Dock doors
- Expected labor productivity rates by function or activity
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| Warehouse Management System |
In addition to tracking warehouse data, a WMS is also helpful for daily warehouse operations management:
- Planning - finalizing the daily plan for receiving dock activity, selecting workload or orders to be processed, calculating labor or vehicle estimates, notify carriers of loads
- Organizing - sequencing the orders to be picked
- Staffing - assign staff to work functions and areas
- Directing - ensuring documented processes are configured in the WMS
- Controlling - providing milestones for management to monitor daily progress and to report data for performance analysis
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