Managing a warehouse is a serious undertaking.
The task has become difficult as we move towards a 24/7 economy.
Customers expect to have their orders placed, filled and delivered in less time than ever, which has made the industry increasingly competitive.
Small inefficiencies add up quickly in large-scale warehousing. Particularly for businesses that maintain large inventories and multiple locations, managing these efficiencies is a challenge.
Warehouse Management Systems are designed to simplify your work and support your move towards future-proof processes.
What is a Warehouse Management System?
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a type of software that controls day-to-day operations in a warehouse.
A WMS is intended to coordinate the moving parts of a warehouse, including inventory, orders, picking, staff, profit levels and more.
Using a WMS makes it simple to automate processes that are often complex, particularly in large-scale warehouses that maintain thousands of products.
By capturing data from every area of the business, your WMS plays a critical role in distributing accurate, up-to-the minute information. This allows each part of your operation to make effective decisions, improve efficiency and reduce costs.
What Does a Warehouse Management System Do?
Warehouse management systems integrate with inventory, ecommerce, ordering, staff, payroll, customer and supplier data.
This allows your WMS to serve as a single point of truth that captures all critical information from across the business.
Having software with this level of oversight can significantly improve the way your warehouse operates.
Modern warehouse management systems perform several major functions, including:
Run Planning and Management
Picking runs are a major challenge in large-scale warehousing. When you manage thousands of products, picking can quickly become a source of inefficiency. A WMS can dramatically reduce picking times and errors by planning optimised picking runs.
Inventory Management
A comprehensive WMS performs a range of inventory management tasks. This includes tracking inventory levels, best before dates, internal movement of inventory, automated ordering and more. While inventory management and warehouse management are two separate functions, a good WMS incorporates data from both areas of your operation to maximise efficiency.
Order Management and Fulfilment
Your WMS captures information from every area of the business, including customers, orders and inventory. This makes it the ultimate tool for managing the fulfilment process. A WMS can receive orders, integrate them into your system, generate picking runs, track the status of orders, and keep customers updated. Centrally managing this process makes it easy to analyse performance and identify any roadblocks in your processes.
Data Collection and Reporting
An effective WMS will integrate data from every area of the business. Giving your WMS information about customers, suppliers, orders, inventory, staff, finances and credit status allows the WMS to serve as a single point of truth. With critical data in one place, it’s easier to analyse performance, generate reports and maintain minute-to-minute control over your profits.
Warehouse Management vs Inventory Management
Warehouse management and inventory management are separate functions that complement each other.
Warehouse management focuses on organising the warehouse, its inventory, and its operation. On the other hand, inventory management is focused on managing stock levels and trends.
Many warehouse management systems include inventory integrations.
This is crucial in ensuring the WMS has the information you need to make effective decisions.
Combining the two functions allows management to optimise inventory levels relative to orders, fulfilment, staffing, picking optimisation and resource allocation.
The Benefits of a Warehouse Management System
Warehouse management software is intended to streamline every aspect of your operation. A fully integrated system offers a number of benefits, including:
Reduced operating Costs
The major benefit of using a warehouse management system is the cost savings. Reducing errors and inefficiencies in your business can have a real impact on your profitability. Depending on how you use your WMS, it could reduce costs in picking times, inventory levels, staff utilisation, order processing, stock processing and more.
Real-Time Warehouse and Inventory Data
Maintaining optimal inventory levels ensures your costs are balanced against customer demand. Using a WMS provides real-time data that makes it easy to keep track of inventory, reduce waste, automate stock ordering, and make effective decisions.
This is not only useful for your business, it allows third party clients to maintain visibility over their inventory, which improves their profitability and satisfaction with your service.
Improved Picking Times and Accuracy
The picking process is often one of the greatest opportunities for improvement in a warehouse. Managing and navigating a large inventory is challenging, but a WMS makes it easy for staff to optimise the way they work. Auto-generated picking runs allow staff to fulfil orders in less time, pick multiple orders at the same time, and reduce errors in their work.
More Efficient Inventory Management
Inventory is the biggest expense for any warehouse environment. Small amounts of waste add up quickly. Warehouse management systems offer powerful inventory control that can automate the process of ordering, picking, best before dates and more.
This eliminates waste, reduces costs and allows you to automate and optimise stock ordering, which further contributes to your bottom line.
Greater Transparency for Customers
Many warehouses operate as third-party providers. When you have hundreds of customers storing their goods in your warehouse, serving accurate information is crucial. The data captured by a WMS can easily be shared with customers to support their ordering, inventory management and customer service goals.
Quality warehouse management systems include a customer portal that gives clients full control of their data. That not only reduces their costs, it allows them to access information at any time of day, even if your office is closed.
Optimise Your Business with the Infoware Warehouse Management System
The right warehouse management system can transform the way you operate. By capturing data from every area of the business, your WMS can unlock new efficiencies, reduce costs and maintain your competitive edge.
Warehouse management systems take many forms. Finding the right one for your business is crucial. If you want to make the most of your money, Infoware is a powerful WMS built with Australian businesses in mind.
The Infoware Warehouse Management System takes the hard work out of running small, medium and large-scale warehouses. Our software features powerful modules that provide insight into inventory, clients, customers, suppliers, staff, finances and much more.
With custom reporting tools and the ability to integrate all of your key information, Infoware removes the roadblocks facing Australian businesses.
Contact us today to find out more or to book a tailored demonstration.