Warehouses are essential links in the supply chain. Goods flow in and out of their gates every day, and millions of logistics processes are carried out inside their walls. The role of the Warehouse Management System (WMS) is to decide the What, When, and Where of these processes to maximize warehouse performance. In this blog post, we'll explore some key WMS benefits.
Benefits of a WMS - What are the main benefits of a Warehouse Management System?
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Making your operations more efficient
Often called the “brain” of your warehouse, the WMS dictates the decision-making logic for all your warehouse processes – manual and automated alike. Thus, it allows you to utilize your warehouse space, labor, equipment, and energy in the best way possible. Furthermore, a modern WMS has a non-reserving system, so your operators can combine assignments and work in real-time. It also allows you to consolidate order picking as well as pick multiple orders at the same time.
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Making you smarter
Working smarter, not harder, is another point on the list of WMS system benefits. A best-of-breed WMS is equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning functionalities that can open new horizons to productivity. For example, it can create the optimal pick route for trucks or select the right box size for packaging, saving you time and resources. It can also learn from historical data, such as your customers’ order patterns, to help you better organize the warehouse space and the workload for your staff. The result is a better work environment and higher throughput, which improves your profitability.
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Making your life easier
System integration – two words that often make supply chain IT professionals anxious. Well, forget the headache because one of the many WMS advantages is that the software can seamlessly integrate into your business ecosystem. It can even take information from your ERP, TMS, or other systems in the warehouse and utilize them to make better decisions, thus increasing efficiency. In addition, it can also integrate with your automation equipment and harmonize manual and automated processes. You can just lie back and enjoy the connected systems working together!
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Making your business more agile
Everything changes –, and it’s not just a recurring theme in pop songs; it’s the reality we face every day in the supply chain industry. To be ready for change, your warehouse needs to be more agile. And that’s where a modern WMS in a scalable SaaS delivery model comes to your rescue. First, WMS in the cloud spares you time and energy: all you need to do is harness the power of the software. Your WMS vendor will deal with building up the IT infrastructure, system updates, maintenance, and data security. Second, if your business expands, you can just copy the software application and modules for other sites and easily scale the number of system users according to your needs.
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Making you more eco-friendly
The long-term success of your business depends on sustainability. Therefore, how you use available resources in the warehouse matters. The good news is that doing more with fewer resources is among warehouse management system benefits. For example, the WMS can help you cut back on packaging material, safely deal with dangerous goods, optimize shipments, and reduce truck driving distance or time spent with empty forklifts – to mention a few areas.
Summary
To sum things up, you can benefit from many WMS advantages. The system’s goal is to optimize your warehouse processes so that you can reach higher productivity, enhance the work environment for your staff, provide better service to your customers, and ultimately, become more profitable.
Are you currently exploring options?
There are many advantages of warehouse management system. Our WMS software Astro WMS® is designed to support your long-term needs: it is scalable, rich in configurable core features and functionality, and adaptable across multiple sites. In addition, it can easily be integrated with any supplier’s automation equipment, giving you the freedom to choose when implementing a warehouse automation solution.
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