milk, honey, car
Group: 2 Maan Alkarnous, Yusuf Jala
Professor: Melender
Assignment: IT Review paper
Warehouse Management System
WMS is an ever improving technology that helps a firm reduce its costs and become more efficient in terms of storage and order deliveries. WMS is being hailed by many as a solution for many of the problems of the supply chain solution. Some of the effects WMS has had on businesses were reduction of inventory from 5 to 20 percent, increased labor productivity from 15 to 40 percent, improved shipping accuracy from 2 to 5 percent, increased perfect order rates, and reduced direct operating costs. All the reasons stated above will help any firm reduce their respective costs and increase their revenue and improve customer loyalty. WMS has other key benefits as well, centering upon reducing the firms costs. These reductions in cost include reduced IT software support requirement, reduced hardware and servers, intuitive and configurable system interfaces, reduction in software training, customizable source codes, reduced cost of future innovation, and the ability to respond to new opportunities increase. A specific company that has implemented WMS software has experienced growth and major financial benefits. SCA Transforests, a leading logistics service provider has implemented a Warehouse Management System in seven of its European terminals. As a result of the implementation, SCA Transforest has experienced tremendous business growth as it has benefited lower distribution costs and streamlined warehouse processes. In addition, the company SCA Transforest can now expand its customer’s base and offer logistics services to other industries. As stated by Thomas Granberg, system owner at SCA Transforest, “The system has meant more efficient use of our warehouse space and we are now able to manage higher volumes. The direct loading of goods to ships or trucks has been greatly improved. We now have a real-time system giving us visibility across our various terminals making planning much easier than before.” There is no doubt that WMS has a significant impact on a business’ plan and drastically improve revenue and profit.
The way that Warehouse Management Systems function is how it utilizes information such as barcodes and source codes for stocks of products to organize the firm’s warehouse and make it reach its optimal use for the firm.
The graph above indicates how the WMS uses all surrounding technology from the moment the stock reaches the firm. This simple “chain of information” is critical to a WMS as it gives it one of its most significant technological features which is the product at real time. That means that employee users who monitor the WMS will know where all incoming and outgoing stocks of product are at all time, and if they are being used to increase the efficacy of the firm’s warehouse. In the end if one were to consider the weight of a WMS’s benefits to its cost, the benefits would be much greater as a WMS offers a firm something critical, which is the ability to save money and generate money off the warehouse’ efficacy. If it were not for WMS many firms would have been able to expand and achieve their full potential, as they are being held back by the lack of their warehouse’s competence.
LINK to Presentation: http://show.zoho.com/public/ma3an21/WMS-%28IT-Presentation%29-ppt1
Sources:
1-http://www.sh-rfid.com/en/project/kucunguanli.html
2-http://www.intellitrack.net/warehouse_management_system_WMS.asp
3-http://www.tgiltd.com/erp-software/warehouse-management-systems-software.html
4-http://www.thomasnet.com/products/warehouse-management-systems-wms-96079934-1.html
5-http://www.tecsys.com/?gclid=CJnvsYzQrpsCFRHxDAodwFCtCA
