Warehouse Management System
Making warehouse management efficient
It’s a digital assistant that helps you keep an eye on all your orders, items, stock and processes: Warehouse management systems (WMS) control all processes in the warehouse, from storage to shipping. They also include functions for monitoring and optimizing warehouse processes.
Advantages of a modern warehouse management system
A powerful WMS is more than just software for warehouse management. It’s a strategic tool for making your logistics processes more competitive. For companies following a digitalization strategy, a state-of-the-art WMS is a must.
WMS advantages at a glance:
Integrating a WMS at your company
A warehouse management system has to be able to communicate seamlessly with existing systems. Otherwise, incompatibilities, data inconsistency or interface issues may result.
We have decades of experience in integrating our customers’ diverse ERP systems. We use this experience to make the interaction between different systems as seamless as possible.
Data quality & master data
Warehouse management systems and the strategies they use only work as well as the data they’re based on. Inconsistent, corrupt or incomplete data can have a number of effects on your daily operation:
The quality of data has a major influence on how well a warehouse functions. That’s why it’s important to make sure your data has the right quality from the start – and to keep it at that high level. This is especially important for master data because it forms the foundation for functions such as robotic picking or packing pattern calculation.
KNAPP’s digital solutions support you by making sure item master data is recorded quickly and correctly, ensuring that your warehouse management can make the right decisions based on the data. This increases efficiency, quality, and the satisfaction of your end customers.
Which companies need a WMS?
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a good idea in the following scenarios:
- Warehouse processes are becoming more complex
- Errors are increasing
- There’s a lack of transparency
In particular, growing companies quickly reach their limits with manual processes. A WMS provides structure, automates processes and provides clear information in real time. Errors such as incorrect deliveries or inventory differences can be reduced significantly, not only reducing expenses, but increasing customer satisfaction as well.
At the same time, a WMS lays the foundation for scalability. It grows along with the company and provides support for future requirements. Shorter delivery times, lower holding costs and better service quality also improve competitiveness.
Investing in a WMS can therefore pay off quickly because it increases efficiency and quality so noticeably. For any business looking to make their warehouse logistics fit for the future, a state-of-the-art WMS is the right choice.
What needs to be kept in mind when choosing a WMS?
Choosing a warehouse management system means choosing a long-term partner. That’s why it’s necessary to consider certain criteria in advance to determine whether a particular WMS is suited for your requirements.
Consider the following criteria:
This information will give you a good impression of whether or not a WMS will be useful for your warehouse.
How do you implement a WMS at your company?
If you decide on a project with KNAPP, we start by planning implementation in detail and defining the resources both parties need to ensure a successful project. Implementing a warehouse management system is a resource-intensive project – with regard to both financial and human capital. We aim to get our customers’ employees on board and trained early on in the process to increase their acceptance of the new system.
At KNAPP, we know that the desire for standardization is widespread. That’s why we always orient ourselves to market standards to make implementing changes, updates and upgrades as smooth as possible. It’s also why we strive to not change the core features of our warehouse management software during projects.
Any necessary changes are made to predefined parts of the software, leaving key features of it standardized while still offering all the opportunities for extensions so we can meet all our customers’ requirements.
In order to optimize the implementation of a warehouse management system, comprehensive tests need to be performed before startup to avoid errors and minimize risks during live operation. That’s why we conduct extensive internal testing on our systems before they are installed in our customers’ warehouses.
Are you looking to implement a warehouse management system with a reliable, experienced partner?
FAQs – Key questions and answers
Inventory management and warehouse management are related terms, but a few key differences in their function, scope and purpose set them apart. Inventory management systems tend to focus on stock management and monitoring quantities and storage locations, while warehouse management systems go beyond stock management to also control and optimize warehouse processes.
Warehouse management systems typically have modular architecture that makes it easy to map new requirements into the system. Selecting the right WMS provider should have you ready to meet whatever challenges the future holds.
Whether or not your company will benefit from a WMS depends less on its size (by number of employees or turnover) and more on the complexity of its warehouse processes, the number of items and the requirements regarding transparency and efficiency.
If the number of items in the warehouse and requirements placed on it (such as lot, serial number and date mark management) continue to grow, then at a certain point, manual warehouse management becomes error-prone and inefficient. The same applies if the number of orders per day is growing. If it continues to do so, optimizing processes and resources with a WMS becomes necessary to make order fulfillment manageable.
Operating a WMS on a local server (on-premise) or on the cloud can both be useful solutions. The ideal one for your system depends on your requirements.
A cloud WMS is ideal for smaller, growing companies that have fewer IT resources or have multiple locations and want to manage their data centrally.
On-premise solutions, on the other hand, are usually used by larger companies that have complex or very specific processes and a need for a high level of customization of the system. These companies also often have stricter data protection and compliance requirements, which are easier to fulfill with a local installation.
