10 Essential Features to Look for in a Warehouse Management Solution

The evolution of warehouse management systems (WMS) is very similar to that of many other software solutions.  Initially a system to control movement and storage of materials within a warehouse, the role of WMS is expanding to including light manufacturing, transportation management, order management, and complete accounting systems.  To use the grandfather of operations-related software, MRP, as a comparison, material requirements planning (MRP) started as a system for planning raw material requirements in a manufacturing environment.  Soon MRP evolved into manufacturing resource planning (MRPII), which took the basic MRP system and added scheduling and capacity planning logic.

Even though WMS continues to gain added functionality, the initial core functionality of a WMS has not really changed.  The primary purpose of a WMS is to control the movement and storage of materials within an operation and process the associated transactions.  Directed picking, directed replenishment, and directed put away are the key to WMS.  The detailed setup and processing within a WMS can vary significantly from one software vendor to another; however the basic logic will use a combination of item, location, quantity, unit of measure, and order information to determine where to stock, where to pick, and in what sequence to perform these operations.

So the 10 essential features to look out for in a WMS is

• Integration with advance radio frequency and bar coding technologies

• Complete back office integration with order entry, inventory control and purchase order module.

• Scalability to accommodate future business growth

• Real time inventory updates

• Browser based interface

• E-commerce capability including web store integration and B2B EDI support.

• Advance reporting capability

• Support for multiple picking methods

• Compliance labeling

• Automated inventory receipt and put away.

Coming from a warehousing background I definitely appreciate the functionality WMSs have to offer, and, in many warehouses, this functionality is essential to their ability to serve their customers and remain competitive.  It’s just important to note that every solution has its downsides and having a good understanding of the potential implications will allow managers to make better decisions related to the levels of technology that best suits their unique environment.