A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is an execution focused software intended to keep track of inventory and optimise the warehouse operation processes, making the warehouse operations stress-free and effective.
WMS is not only for noting inventory balance for each of the bin location in a warehouse, it is a lot more interesting, and more complex than that. To operate a warehouse effectively, there are 8 must-have basic features for a warehouse management system:
1) Inventory Management
Each item received into the warehouse and shipped out of the warehouse must be recorded using the warehouse management system with not only the quantity, but all the necessary attributes such as expiry date, lot number, country origin, project number, user defined attributes so to allow appropriate execution for the warehouse operations. This must-have feature must include many basic item attributes such as inventory status, product condition, manufacturing date, expiration date, serial number and allow the ability to catch weight.
2) Location Type Management
To be able to configure wide range of location type such as racking, bin, multi-depth locations pigeonholes, drive-In or drive-through location and Floor Locations. All these location types shall need to be highly configurable so the warehouse operation can easily manage location capacity.
3) Product Attribute Feature
Product attributes such as batch number and expiry date required careful management. The main purpose of the such product attribute is to allow operation to view, handle and control inventory. A warehouse may receive 100 cartons of an item yesterday with a specific expiration date and the item could be received today with a different quantity and a different expiry date. This must-have basic warehouse management system feature allow operation to easily perform stock rotation and identify expired or damaged stock, knowing that a warehouse can receive inventory which has an earlier expiration date than the inventory they already received into the warehouse.
4) Inventory Rotation Feature
A must-have basic feature for managing the inventory rotation, allow the inventory to be based on First-In-First-Out (FIFO), First-Expire-First-Out (FEFO), Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) and Last-Expire-First-Out (LEFO).
5) Inventory Status Feature
Inventory stored in the warehouse has many different statuses. For example, a very commonly used status for inventory is “On Hold”. However, not all inventory of an Item will be On Hold at the same time, very often some are “On Hold”, some are not, some are “Expired”, some are “Damaged”, some are “Reserved” for a specific reason or customer.
6) Ownership Management
The same item in the warehouse may belong to different owners. This is a must-have feature to protect your future when you are expanding your business.
7) Multiple Warehouse Supported
When you grow your business, you will likely expand your operation to have more than one warehouse. You don’t want to be distracted when you are expanding, make sure this must-have feature is available when you purchase your warehouse management system.
8) Low-Cost Subscription
A powerful warehouse management system does not need to be expensive. No need to invest in purchasing server hardware, no need server software, no need database software, no need expensive hardware maintenance, no pricey data centre or hosting fee. Be stress free, enjoy periodical system upgrade at no extra cost
9) eCommerce Ready Integration
Ready connections with the eCommerce marketplaces, get the WMS to empower you with smooth seamless warehouse operations. Operate a distribution centre and eCommerce at the same time in the same warehouse or across multiple warehouses. Not possible? Let us amaze you. Find out more below.
Subscribe to the most powerful low-cost warehouse management system so you can focus on expanding your business.
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