Julie Fraser: No loitering in the warehouse

The speed of business has increased the need for cross-docking and efficient wave, batch or zone picking.  Increasingly, warehouses also deal with varying compliance requests for specific customers.  Some warehouses also perform value-adding operations from light manufacturing to returns management and disposition.  Globalization has increased complexity in shipment notice handling, clearing customs and managing multiple currencies, tariffs and regulations.

WMS software providers such as such as Apriso, IBS (International Business Systems), Logility, Manhattan Associates, SSA Global, and Yantra division of Sterling Commerce all provide strong software and experience improving warehouse operations.  In addition to the traditional receiving, putaway, picking, kitting, slotting and shipping capabilities of WMS, most of these products deliver real-time alerts, workflow, and extremely accurate inventory visibility (some through RFID).  Companies such as Viewlocity can also support the visibility and alerts component of warehousing. 

A modern WMS can be one of the highest-value, quickest return IT investments for an industrial company.  Sound WMS implementation offers cost savings through productivity, space reductions and lower levels of fast-moving inventory.  Companies that perform well in their warehouses can also increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

To competitively meet demand, companies must minimize their inventory and keep it moving.  Workflow, alerts and mobile workers support today’s best practice fulfillment operations.  WMS help ensure there is no loitering in the warehouse—that goods are always ready to move when needed.