October 1, 2012 from Logistics Management – “The warehouse management systems (WMS) market is on a tear. In 2011 it grew by 10 percent over 2010 to nearly $1.3 billion, according to ARC Advisory Group, a leading supply chain management software analyst firm…
The “warehouse” concept is simple in theory. After all, how difficult can it really be to manage a cavernous space filled with racks, boxes, pallets, and forklifts?
In reality, the task is huge and requires the right mix of people, systems, and solutions to run smoothly. For many logistics professionals, the latter need is filled by a WMS, which is tasked with controlling the movement and storage of materials within an operation and then processing the associated transactions.
As WMS evolved over the years, the number of functionalities that these systems can handle has increased exponentially. Wave and batch picking, task interleaving (mixing dissimilar tasks like putaway and picking), automated data collection (ADC), advanced shipment notifications (ASN), cross docking, and slotting are just a few of the vital warehouse functions that today’s WMS can tackle…”
180 View – There are opportunities for significant business process improvement in those cavernous spaces which are not always well handled by ERP systems but don’t count on WMS taking over the world any time soon.