Businesses of all kinds are turning to technology to change the way they operate and manage their inventory. Having a strategy for optimizing your space, lowering operating expenses, and creating lasting relationships with your distributors and customers is how you grow your business. But how do you do all that as a small to mid-sized business (SMB)? This is where you need a flexible warehouse management system (WMS).
Implementing a WMS like Wisys’ Agility will do much more than get you organized. You will save time and money. Here’s what you need to know.
What is a Warehouse Management System?
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a piece of retail technology that is used in numerous industries, not just warehouses. Any business that needs to track their inventory and materials, as well as receive real-time data reporting, should be using a WMS. In other words, a WMS optimizes your warehouse and inventory processes.
Warehouse management systems are essential because you can do more than track items. You can use a flexible WMS like Agility to streamline tasks, help workers find and pick items faster, pack orders with fewer errors, and keep track of every movement. A flexible, scalable WMS will also integrate with ERPs like SAP Business One, furthering your ability to cross-reference data and have all necessary information on hand.
At the end of the day, a great WMS pays for itself.
4 Ways a Flexible WMS Saves Time and Money
Are you still using documentation to update your systems? Do you experience time gaps between your real data and what is in the system? These data inaccuracies are holding your business back. Before bringing on a WMS, there is nothing but delays and frustration.
Here are the ways a flexible WMS benefits your SMB:
1. Optimize Space, Lower Expenses
Proper tracking of your inventory goes beyond finding a place to put the pallets until they are needed. Warehouse management systems can optimize the warehouse by suggesting the best place for your inventory or stock, based on the demand or the characteristics of the products. In turn, this lessens confusion from improper item placement and movement.
A flexible WMS can be adapted to suit the practices that benefit your business. For instance, you can use your WMS for material rotation, based on first-in, first-out (FIFO); last-in, last-out (LIFO); first-expired, first-out (FEFO).
This also means you can utilize your workers more effectively. Using a WMS, you can assign tasks to the correct employee, as well as use features like labor forecasting, item scanning, KPIs, and more.
2. Optimize Your Supply Chain
A flexible WMS is designed to streamline a variety of processes, based on your needs. For instance, your employees can use a WMS to guide their picking and packing, achieving faster shipments. This saves a vast amount of time, especially when the information from inbound and outbound shipments is updated instantaneously.
There is more to warehouse management systems, though. By improving your inventory processes, you can improve picking and packing times. In turn, this reduces shipment errors and accelerates delivery. You can use your WMS to connect with your favorite couriers and shipping partners, too.
When using an ERP, you can also share information with your customers and a Transportation Management System (TMS).
3. Increase Customer Relations
Using a customizable WMS like Agility means fewer mistakes and less time spent correcting errors in the system. You gain enhanced control over your business—as well as shipping. In other words, you become instantly more reliable to your customers or distributors.
Customers want to know that their orders were successfully processed, filled, and shipped out within a reasonable time, after all. If you’re not using a WMS, you may lose track of their ordered product or make a packing mistake. Not providing your customers with speed and quality means they are going to try your competitors next.
4. Enhanced Visibility and Traceability
Visibility and traceability are two things that SMBs find challenging, especially when your data is lacking or inaccurate. Warehouse management systems ensure that you can see real-time inventory levels. Agility, for example, uses tracking methods like RFID and scanning to consistently update the number and location of every product that comes into the warehouse.
Furthermore, when you pair Agility (or another WMS) with SAP Business One, you can use both the real-time data analysis and forecasting functions of both systems to gain insight into future inventory movements. Therefore, you will be able to mitigate losses and even increase your revenue.
This also works with traceability. Your WMS enables easy tracing by using serial numbers, lots, bins, batches, and more. These numbers make it much easier to track incoming and outgoing orders. You will notice a decrease in redundancy, increased accuracy, and more customer satisfaction.
Let Us Help You Optimize Your Business
Your business needs a warehouse management system like Agility to succeed in today’s fast-paced world. Without streamlined warehouse and inventory management, the chance of mistakes is far too great. Instead, choose a WMS like Agility that you can customize to suit your needs.
Ready to save time and money and optimize your business from the ground up? Give Wisys a call today to learn more about Agility or SAP Business One.