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1、 1Warehouse Management Systems (WMS).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, transp
2、ortation 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 m
3、anufacturing resource planning (MRPII), which took the basic MRP system and added scheduling and capacity planning logic. Eventually MRPII evolved into enterprise resource planning (ERP), incorporating all the MRPII functionality with full financials and customer and vendor management functionality.
4、 Now, whether WMS evolving into a warehouse-focused ERP system is a good thing or not is up to debate. What is clear is that the expansion of the overlap in functionality between Warehouse Management Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning, Distribution Requirements Planning, Transportation Management
5、 Systems, Supply Chain Planning, Advanced Planning and Scheduling, and Manufacturing Execution Systems will only increase the level of confusion among companies looking for software solutions for their operations. Even though WMS continues to gain added functionality, the initial core functionality
6、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
7、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. At a bare minimum, a WMS
8、should:Have a flexible location system.Utilize user-defined parameters to direct warehouse tasks and use live documents to execute these tasks.Have some built-in level of integration with data collection devices.2Do You Really Need WMS?Not every warehouse needs a WMS. Certainly any warehouse could b
9、enefit from some of the functionality but is the benefit great enough to justify the initial and ongoing costs associated with WMS? Warehouse Management Systems are big, complex, data intensive, applications. They tend to require a lot of initial setup, a lot of system resources to run, and a lot of
10、 ongoing data management to continue to run. Thats right, you need to “manage“ your warehouse “management“ system. Often times, large operations will end up creating a new IS department with the sole responsibility of managing the WMS. The Claims: WMS will reduce inventory! WMS will reduce labor cos
11、ts! WMS will increase storage capacity! WMS will increase customer service! WMS will increase inventory accuracy! The Reality: The implementation of a WMS along with automated data collection will likely give you increases in accuracy, reduction in labor costs (provided the labor required to maintai
12、n the system is less than the labor saved on the warehouse floor), and a greater ability to service the customer by reducing cycle times. Expectations of inventory reduction and increased storage capacity are less likely. While increased accuracy and efficiencies in the receiving process may reduce
13、the level of safety stock required, the impact of this reduction will likely be negligible in comparison to overall inventory levels. The predominant factors that control inventory levels are lot sizing, lead times, and demand variability. It is unlikely that a WMS will have a significant impact on
14、any of these factors. And while a WMS certainly provides the tools for more organized storage which may result in increased storage capacity, this improvement will be relative to just how sloppy your pre-WMS processes were. Beyond labor efficiencies, the determining factors in deciding to implement
15、a WMS tend to be more often associated with the need to do something to service your customers that your current system does not support (or does not support well) such as first-in-first-out, cross-docking, automated pick replenishment, wave picking, lot tracking, yard management, automated data col
16、lection, automated material handling equipment, etc.3Setup The setup requirements of WMS can be extensive. The characteristics of each item and location must be maintained either at the detail level or by grouping similar items and locations into categories. An example of item characteristics at the detail level would include exact dimensions and weight of each item in each unit of measure the item is stocked (each, cases, pallets, etc) as well as information such as whether it
