Warehouse Management Systems

Warehouse Management Systems or WMS are put in place to help control the storage and movement of the materials within the warehouse. They are a vital part of the supply chain and control processes within the warehouse such as shipping and picking & packing. Also based on real time the systems help to direct and optimize stock.

The main purpose of a warehouse management system is primarily to control movement and storage of materials in a warehouse.

WMS provides computerized procedures which deal with the receipt of stock & returns into the warehouse facility. It also enables a link to the ordering processes and logistics enabling ordering, picking, packing and shipping the product out of the warehouse.

Some WMS are stand-alone systems, whilst others are modules of an ERP (Enterprising Resource Planning) system or supply chain execution suite.

Many systems will often use data capture technology such as ;

o Mobile scanners
o Radio frequency identification ( RFID )
o Wireless LANS
o Barcode scanners

The use of this technology helps to efficiently monitor the flow of products.

When the data has been collected it is transmitted to a central database, and this database will then provide important and useful reports on the status of the goods within the warehouse.

It deals with the movement, storage, and receipt of warehouse goods to temporary or intermediate storage locations or to the final customer.

Good efficient warehouse management can make a lot of difference to a retail chain distribution company. It should start with initial planning of container design for a specific product. Both warehouse and process design within the warehouse is also an important part of good warehouse management.

The primary objective of warehouse management is to optimize order fulfilment and cost of time by managing the available resources economically.

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