Functionality	Details
Stock Availability and Taking	Facilitates stakeholders to know the availability of stock and restock levels Ascertains the minimum and maximum reorder levels Helps maintain the stock at the right time at the right place Prevents overstocking of goods Saves big time on spaces and inventory
Product Placement	Helps in placing products effectively with maximum space utilization Makes use of different criteria such as convenience, heaviness, and demand Guarantees seamless functioning of warehouse procedures
Cycle Count	Needed to maintain the health of the inventory WMS starts off the daily cycle count depending on user needs
Report Generation	Generates various reports based on inventory, shipments, transactions, and other parameters Offers a huge bulk of information for future enhancements Helps in businesses fulfilling their objectives
Following Accurate Business Rules	Important to follow business rules such as FIFO Confirms timely order completion and delivery The effective and fast transport system

Top Reasons Why WMS Is Vital for Supply Chain Management

• Inventory Management and Maintenance

Being one of the vital components of the supply chain industry, inventory management is one important area that needs to be focused upon. A good WMS aims at augmenting the inventory management process by reducing inventory levels, enhancing order completion, and lessening order cycle time. It looks at almost all vital activities in the warehouse and helps organizations go into the deepest details of each unit for better performance and inventory correctness.

Inventory maintenance and management thus, become much swifter, efficient, and simplistic. It becomes easy for the distributors, vendors, customers, wholesalers, and all relevant stakeholders to grab the exact position of the warehouses, the stock inventory, replacement details, and its location.

• Client Experience and Accurateness

After all, customer happiness is what we aim for, at the forefront. The warehouse is an integral element when it comes to ensuring customer satisfaction. From the warehouse, the client gets the orders fulfilled and the exact product that is needed. A warehouse management system helps big time, to organize, track and deliver shipments faster and better. With this, orders are sure to be precise and on time. Management and tracking of different strategies like shipment paths, task allocation, real-time tracking, and monitoring, etc. are handled in the best way possible.

• Enhanced Organizational Efficiency

The warehouse functionalities and their performance have a direct impact on the productivity of the organization. Due to a competitive WMS, there is sure to be increased effectiveness, reliability, and quality control in all procedures involved. The movement of products, through the system, would be faster, efficient, and accurate. Owing to the right information at the right time, it is easy for the workers to offer a better work output.

• Maximized RoI Generation

Thanks to WMS, there are augmented sales, increased profit margins, accurate order delivery, and happier customers and business owners. This creates a direct impact on maximizing the return on investment by fastening and simplifying processes, making them more accurate.

• Seamless Integration with Other Systems

Multiple systems are working together to give a proper output. A WMS is essential for covering up all warehouse-related functionalities, which are prime to this industry and further, integrate seamlessly with other involved systems.

• Make the Most of Festive Times

The best part about getting seasonal business right is that the customers get what they need, at that time. And if it is known prior, it becomes easier for businesses to work accordingly. Working with a WMS will help make the most of festive times by tracking the complete production procedure and observing customer needs. Without any extra expenses, with the help of this solution, organizations can leverage their potential to garner maximum results. Profits can escalate and so can the RoI.

• Easy Risk Handling

Certain risk factors are involved while executing any supply chain business. This solution helps in ascertaining those risk factors, well ahead of time, to mitigate them or solve them as early as possible. With the assistance of the real-time information collected, the demand and supply ratio can be worked upon.

• Transparent And Accurate Working

This is a huge advantage that a warehouse management system comes with, it offers a lot of transparency and an accurate working mechanism to all stakeholders involved. Procedures involved in this industry are all open to stakeholders and hence there is real-time information available as and when needed. Even the customers can leverage the potential of data to their best.

How to Choose the Best WMS for Your Organization?

There are multiple warehouse management systems floating around. Choosing the ideal one for your organization is a tough call. Here are certain checklist options that will help you make your decision in a fast and accurate manner:

• Is the proposed solution functional and simple?
• Is the system flexible, adjustable, and scalable?
• Are all your warehouse functionalities being met in the proposed system?
• Are all dynamic functionalities being fulfilled?
• Is the system offering you a return on your investment concerning customer satisfaction, product supply, warehouse management, etc.?
• Is the system flexible enough to easily integrate with other systems?
• Is there enough domain knowledge and technical expertise available with the service provider?
• Are all cost factors properly accounted for, while calculating the budget?
• Are all important warehouse processes like order management, inventory calculation, product packaging, and shipping, etc. covered properly?

Warehouse Management of the Future – A Peep into It

Warehouse management systems are in vogue today and will continue to rule the supply chain and logistics industry in the future to come. Yet, it won’t remain the same. Here are certain key trending happenings that will enhance the WMS experience for all involved stakeholders:

• Smarter technologies will get in. Artificial Intelligence will change the way WMS operates, bringing in different gadgets like drones, robots, etc.
• Internet of Things (IoT) will garner more emphasis on the physical and digital world coming closer
• Augmented reality will attempt to offer a visually appealing experience to the customer, increasing business multi-fold
• Smart wearables, devices, and connected devices will increase warehouse effectiveness
• The warehouse will leverage the potential of the cloud and its characteristics like its flexibility, elasticity, transparency, scalability, and manageability.

At the Bottom Line

As an integral part of the overall supply chain management solution, an effective, flexible, and feature-rich Warehouse Management Solution (WMS) gives out a comprehensive solution to all the warehouse management and control actions. It can mechanize and modernize procedures, excellently accomplish complex processes, improve productivity, and control all the happenings with superior agility.

Planned to streamline distribution management, inventory management, and all the warehouse operations right from the process of shipment receiving, inventory, to shipment unloading, a WMS is the face of the future, especially for the supply chain and logistics industry. No wonder, it forms the core part of the chunk of logistics and supply chain software solutions.