Wednesday 25 January 2012

Warehouse Management System

Warehouse management systems form a part of the supply chain process and are closely related to the inventory management systems. While inventory management systems track the movement of products throughout the supply chain process right from the moment of their conception their the moment of sale, warehouse management systems are simply restricted to keeping track of items that are in storage and are waiting to be sold.

There are several different types of Warehouse Management Software that can be used to keep automatic records of stored goods thus obviating the need to manually record all inventory related information. The manual recording of such information can be quite a tedious and cumbersome task and needs hundreds of employees for its successful completion. However, in the case of WMS software, a single person can manage all accounts related to the inventory in storage thus translating into many economic advantages for the firm by way of reduced labor expenses.

A WMS software consists of a system that helps control the movement of products coming into the warehouse and exiting it. A proper regulation and supervision is maintained on all the stock items that are stored thus substantially reducing any risk of pilferage or unsubstantiated loss of products. Different systems within the WMS software can also help determine the sale trends which can help formulate inventory ordering places in a significant manner. A firm can indulge in useful activities like capacity planning, manufacture planning, etc. to enhance its efficiency and profits to the maximum. Warehouse management also helps in the accurate maintenance of accounts which helps evaluate the true worth of the company in terms of its assets and availability of monetary resources. As each item has been recorded in such software, there is a realistic and correct maintenance of records regarding the inventory.

Warehouse management software can also help considerably in improving upon the operations related to moving the items to their intended locations by coming up with the best methods of doing so. All this is done in scientific manner by conducting time and motion studies which helps extract the maximum output from the workers. Some of the characteristics of a good WMS are that it should be flexible enough to accommodate different management practices and policies; it should be consist of integrated tasks or operations and be able to successfully regulate tasks in a disciplined manner.

To know more about Warehouse Management, contact McLane Logistics Technology, 4001 Central Ponte, Parkway, Temple, TX 76504 or call at 1-800-989-7568.