Software

Advantages of Custom Warehouse Management Systems

Picture1sdvfIn the earlier days, companies in producing and manufacturing goods relied on paperwork and clipboards and performed all the functions of managing inventory, warehouse, and transportation of goods manually. With the expansion of manufacturing houses, the number of orders and distribution points increased which triggered complexity in the timely fulfillment of these processes. Hence, these companies embraced computer systems that provided them effective and timely processing of these logistics functions. These computer systems are nothing but warehouse management systems.

How Warehouse Management System Functions?

Warehouse management systems or warehouse management applications play a key role in channelizing the movement and storage of materials within and from the warehouse by automating every process. These systems give companies the required flexibility and functionality to improve the process of managing inventories and their distribution by synchronizing with the physical inventories and providing accurate reports of their movements in and out in real-time.

Benefits of Using WMS

  • Automate inventory inward and outward processes
  • Control and manage complex warehouse processes
  • Optimize materials flow
  • Process good receipts, issues and transfers quickly
  • Enable communication between product stations
  • Generate better visibility to demand/supply pipe
  • Eliminate manual errors of recording and stock taking
  • Reduces thefts and misplacements

Growth of Warehouse Management Systems

The evolution of warehouse management system like any other software system has taken a huge turn. From providing mechanism for storage and controlling of goods, the warehouse management applications of today's time are now ready to function for multiple processes that revolve around standard warehouse processes providing a transparent picture of the entire process.

Why Choose Custom WMS over Ready-made WMS?

According to one of the Warehousing Management Surveys, the competition in the manufacturing industry has become tight, which requires each player to respond to the demands quickly. Hence these firms in order to remain agile and flexible expect their WMS to manage transportation mechanism, supply chain, integrate with ERP systems, perform picking and replenishment functions, and automate order processing and several other tasks.

All these functions are not always available in standard and ready-made WMS. Hence, it is advisable that companies develop their own custom WMS.

How to Get a Customized WMS Developed?

Companies planning to develop their own WMS should conduct enough research to find the right, technology, development vendor, pricing and engagement model of the development vendor, etc. Besides this, before actually outsourcing the development of their WMS system, they should develop a foundation strategy by asking the following questions:

  • How many facilities exist in the current distribution system?
  • What are the major functions that they expect their WMS to perform?
  • How automating these functions will assist in their supply chain?
  • How will they integrate their existing systems with the new application?

If companies get accurate answers of the above questions, they can get the right WMS developed which will cater to all their requirements and justify their investment.

Example Case Study:

A UK based Logistics company required a mobile and desktop solution for managing its inventory and warehouse processes. It required its WMS to perform functions like

  • Update goods details in real-time
  • Maintain purchase orders and invoices
  • Display good transportation modes and routes
  • Synchronize mobile application with a centralized database to get information on mobile
  • Scan barcodes of products
  • Integrate reports with the accounts department

In the above case study, the WMS developed provided greater efficiencies to the company and provided other value added services and flexibilities which rendered better scalability and inventory accuracy.

See how they Developed .Net based an application for stock and ware house management to improve inventory control.

PS: Developing warehouse management system improves the value you offer to your end users which in turn gives you a competitive edge. If you have similar requirements or want to discuss your areas of concerns, leave a comment below.

Information provided by: npfulfilment.com.au

One Comment

  1. Investing in having a custom WMS developed can be a lot more time consuming and costly than implementing one already available with the ability to be tailored to your specific requirements.

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