What Factors To Consider While Choosing A Warehouse Management System?
Warehouse Management
What do you think when you consider the term warehouse management? Warehouse management mainly refers to the optimization of all operations performed in the warehouse. These operations include inventory management, maintenance, ensuring proper care of new warehouses, dispatching orders, etc.
Daily business warehouse activities can get tough for your supply chain if they are not carried out with proper planning. In order to make sure that these activities are handled smoothly, many fast-growing companies are considering the warehouse management system in their businesses. And for such businesses, it is a very important step to choose the right warehouse management system to increase their order fulfillment Montreal throughout the globe.
What Does Warehouse Management System (WMS) Mean?
Let’s have a quick look at what WMS means and what it can do for your business.
A warehouse management system (WMS) includes software and various processes to control operations within the warehouse. These processes start from the moment goods enter into a warehouse until they move out for shipment. Additionally, WMS enables companies to increase their labor and space utilization.
In the initial stage, WMS could only provide general storage location information. But nowadays the functionality of WMS is almost widened around the world. It can minimize the number of errors in product shipment. For many organizations, it helps them to increase the efficiency of order fulfillment by tracking orders with the warehouses.
How Do We Choose A Warehouse Management System?
Since a wrong warehouse management system can cost millions to your business, this is a reason why we have to be careful while choosing it. We are sharing the top essential factor that you will need to consider while taking the final step of choosing a warehouse management system.
1. Consider The Location Of Your Warehouse
It is easy to understand that the location of your warehouse can affect the efficiency of your entire supply chain. Generally, how much time is taken in delivering the product and storing it in the warehouse is considered for small or new businesses. Choosing a location close to the transport hub, railway station, or port will give you the best approach in selecting the right WMS for you. The warehouses that are located in big cities can deliver orders faster than distant warehouses. While in rural areas the storage space is cheaper than that closer to transport facilities.
2. Research For Seasonality Demand
If your business is seasonally based, then this factor should be crucial to consider. This factor creates some challenges in warehousing for businesses. Frequent changes in stock and order volume due to seasonal changes may affect the company sale. In many cases, it may be possible that the price of warehouse space will increase when your sale is low. On the other hand, there will not be enough space for your inventory when the sale is high. For such reasons, warehouses that provide contract basis services are ideal for long-term storage needs.
3. Types Of Products You Sell
Every warehouse has its own terms and conditions, generally because of safety purposes. Not all warehouses provide special facilities while some have restrictions to store certain products like flammable goods or alcohol. For the same reason, the types of products you sell also play a role in choosing the right storage system.
You may consider choosing a WMS that is good for storing the types of products you sell. Some warehouses consist of cold storage space that is ideal for businesses selling items like dairy products. If the product has to be stored safely, you should choose a WMS that has trained staff, fire alarms, etc.
4. How Much Does It Cost?
As we are looking forward to making the business less cost-effective, this is the factor you should consider first before investing. The cost of WMS increases with its complexity. Companies must clearly understand how much they can invest in a WMS without compromising on quality and budget. Hence, finding a functional & cost-effective WMS is a major step to be taken by the businesses before finalizing the right WMS.
5. Could Be Used Easily
The next thing to consider while choosing a WMS is the ease of use. Even if you have the best WMS, what if your employees fail to grasp its knowledge? In such cases, the WMS you chose will not be that helpful because no one will be able to take advantage of the services it offers. From employees’ aspects, less time has to be spent on the training if the WMS is easy to use. The easy-to-use WMS requires less monitoring and can be enhanced to face new demands and requirements.
It’s clear that choosing a warehouse management system requires very careful consideration. If you need additional guidance, contact us and speak to the experts at Trade System. We are a fully integrated third-party logistics service provider specializing in warehousing Montreal, inventory management, and order fulfillment.