What does a WMS add to ERP?

Topics

What is warehouse management?
What is a warehouse management system?
How do you use a warehouse management system?
The advantages of a WMS
Types of warehouse management systems
Which WMS solution fits your situation best?

What is Warehouse Management?

Warehouse management is an umbrella term for all the processes involved in running, directing and managing a warehouse. This can range from things like warehouse layout and managing employees to daily activities such as receiving and managing inventory, handling orders and directing carriers. Warehouse management helps to optimize and integrate these warehouse processes to make them as productive and efficient as possible. In addition, warehouse management allows you to reduce errors and make results transparent and measurable.

The difference between Warehouse Management and Inventory Management
Warehouse management can be seen as a complement to Inventory Management. First, inventory management ensures that the required goods are in the warehouse at the right time. In particular, you look at inventory values, stock levels and trends across warehouses. Based on these analyses, you can optimize inventory levels of materials and products. The goal of inventory management is to save space and money while still meeting customer demand.

Warehouse management focuses on designing, organizing and practically controlling and managing a warehouse. Complementary to inventory management, warehouse management regulates issues such as warehouse organization and design, order processing, process monitoring and reporting, task management, and scheduling of people and resources to optimize the handling of logistics processes.

What is a warehouse management system?

A warehouse management system can provide real-time insight into every aspect of your warehouse operations; from the location of each item to the number of employees in the packing department. A WMS helps manage and optimize warehouse processes, such as personnel planning or picking production orders and sales orders. The system can organize all these steps more efficiently. For most companies, this saves a lot of time and money, since the logistics process is a major expense.

How do you use a warehouse management system?

Warehouse management systems can be used to control the entire process within your warehouse. These are the main activities:

Using your warehouse optimally: by entering warehouse and inventory information, a WMS can help you make optimal use of available space
Create feasible daily schedules: based on current orders, allocate the right human capacity and schedule carriers
Inventory tracking: easily track inventory during movement, picking and shipping via barcode scanning
Order processing: efficient and detailed picking
Monitoring and reporting: track activities and detect and resolve problems early, assess performance and identify and implement areas for improvement.

The benefits of WMS

Reduce waste

Better management of warehouse, inventory and staff scheduling helps minimize waste and cut costs.

Optimize warehouse processes

From receiving inventory to picking, packing and shipping, a WMS uses data to identify bottlenecks and other problems.

Less human error

With a simple, efficient method of storage, picking and packing, you increase the accuracy of order processing and the time your people need to do this in the warehouse.

Materials real-time tracking

Track inventory with lot and batch numbers so you can see exactly where materials and items are in the supply chain.

Better relationships in the chain

Coordinate the inbound and outbound flow of goods with suppliers, carriers and customers so that orders are received and shipped as efficiently as possible.

Increase flexibility

Respond faster to changes in order volume, seasonal effects or unexpected disruptions.

Types of warehouse management systems

In practice, we see 3 types of warehouse management systems:

Standalone on-premise WMS

A standalone on-premise WMS often provides warehouse management functionality and supports things like inventory management, order fulfillment and transportation. With on-premise WMS, you have to handle IT management yourself. This includes application maintenance, software upgrades and resolving any IT-related issues. Compared to other types, implementation of an on-premise WMS often takes longer because it requires complex integrations with existing business software.

Cloud WMS

Cloud WMS are Web-based SaaS solutions. Here, users work with the software hosted by the vendor or manufacturer via the Web browser. The advantage is that you don't have to worry about IT management. Also, implementation is often faster because cloud WMS solutions are generally easier to configure. Cloud WMS generally integrates well with cloud ERP systems and other technical solutions.

WMS modules within ERP systems

A WMS ERP module is fully integrated with an ERP solution, which also includes modules for other business activities such as accounting, CRM, sales and inventory management. In this situation, all data (including WMS data) is stored in one shared database, so everyone in the organization always has access to the same, up-to-date information. NetSuite and its WMS module are an example of this.

Which WMS solution best suits your situation?

As you can see, a WMS offers extensive possibilities to optimize the overall process in your warehouse(s), improve your business results and ensure that customers receive the right products on time. But which WMS is the best fit for your organization? We give 5 tips:

Which WMS fits your specific situation? There are many WMS solutions in the market. Which one best suits your organization depends on many factors. Some solutions are particularly suitable for specific industries or for certain organizational sizes. Therefore, map out for each WMS to what extent it meets the needs and demands of your organization.
Look wider than just the WMS. Consider your ERP system, for example. The ERP system serves as the source for the WMS. Executed jobs and other relevant information is often also sent back from the WMS to the ERP system. As a result, integrations are often extensive and in some cases even complex. This can lead to significant investments.
Also, hold your ERP system up to the light. During the search for a new WMS solution. Perhaps your current ERP system already has a built-in WMS solution? Or maybe there are standard interfaces available with third-party systems? In doing so, also consider whether you are satisfied with your current solution. Can your current ERP adequately support you in the coming years to achieve your goals? Is an investment in your current solution a good move or are there better solutions?
Can the WMS integrate with ERP? Look closely at the technical aspects of your preferred WMS. How good are its integration capabilities with your ERP system and/or other core applications? Where is the application hosted? How are updates handled? Who takes care of maintenance and are there costs involved?
Make a good total cost of ownership (TCO) calculation. All of the above questions affect the investment and maintenance costs. Such a total cost calculation can help you make an informed decision about an important new step in the digitization of your company. We therefore advise you to map out all these elements carefully.

We are happy to help you!

Bastian BeukersSales

b.beukers@fortiqo.nl 0548-201010

As you've read in this blog, NetSuite offers a WMS module as part of ERP. Both solutions fully integrated and because it is a cloud solution, you no longer have to worry about your IT. If you want to know more about this, contact us or look further on the WMS page.

After reading this blog, do you feel the need to talk to us about WMS, ERP or its selection? Then get in touch with us. We have extensive experience in the field of ERP and WMS and would love to hear how we can help you further.

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