Choosing an effective Warehouse Management System (WMS) for your organisation is a very important task but it can be a difficult task at the same time as well. It has a major role to play when it comes to the productivity of your business. While you are selecting a Warehouse Management System you do need to consider the impact it can have on other parts of the business. E.g. customer services, sales, Also, an important consideration is security and integration with third party shipping providers as well.
By introducing this system in your company, you can reduce human error and improve the efficiency & productivity of the organisation. A highly productive workforce is going to make a positive impact on the business overall. Let us discuss the top 5 ways a good warehouse management system can benefit your business.
1. Information Security
A secure WMS will ask its users to make transactions by logging into their account. This way, you can maintain privacy and security of transactions and have accountability of the users on each action performed in the business. This will help you increase employee reduce missing stock and improve the overall profitability of the business.
2. Process Optimisation
An effective warehouse management system helps in optimising your processes while managing your materials. If you go for a flexible Warehouse Management System, it may also give you options in choosing a process which best suits your business. For Example, Payment for Orders should be received first before delivery or payment is based on delivered goods.
3. Increased Order/Stock Visibility
A good WMS It gives a clear picture by providing real-time data to the staff thus helping them in answering customer queries quickly. Think of a perfect scenario, a customer rings in through the helpdesk and if your WMS is fully up to date, the customer service agent can now tell the customer that the order is picked, shipped or in transit. This will increase the visibility of the customer’s order in the warehouse and will also increase customer satisfaction.
4. Lower Operational CostsÂ
It helps in making use of labour and warehouse in the most effective way thus lowering resource costs to a greater extent. Now you don’t need to employ a lot of people to look after the warehouse and a properly mapped and electronically managed warehouse will ensure greater efficiencies. Your resources can now be utilised in other more productive tasks.
5. Enables Demand Planning
An effective WMS helps in improving the consistency of the processes. It helps in shipping correct orders thus meeting the demands of the customers. This, in turn, reflects a clean demand history. Another important factor is that this system can help in predicting future demand and improving productivity using the best-fit algorithm.
As you can see, there are a lot of benefits in using an effective warehouse management system. It is essential to have a well designed WMS to run a successful and profitable business. But, it is important to select a correct warehouse management system for your organisation to meet the needs of your business and allow for future growth. Before selecting your WMS, study and understand your process requirements well and see if it is suitable for your business and industry or not. If you are ever in doubt don’t forget to take the help of an independent consultant who can help you decide on a system.
